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VESTIGES 



OF 



CIVILIZATION; 



THE ETIOLOGY OF HISTORY, 



EELIGIOUS, JESTHETICAL, POLITICAL, 



AND 



PHILOSOPHICAL. 



Toiite la suite des hommes pendant le coiirs de tant de si^cles doit etre con- 
sideree comme ua*n:ieme homme qui subsiste toujour* et qui apprend continuel- 
lement. Pascal. 

(" Humanity is but a man who lives perpetually and learns contimiallyy) 




KEW-rOKK : 

H. BAILLIERE, 290 BROADWAY 

LONDON : 219 REGENT STREET. 

PARIS: 

J. B. BAILLIERE, RUE HAUTEFEUILLE. 
1851. 






Faltered acconiiuiC to the Act of CoUi;rcsA, Lu the year oue thousiaid eight hun- 
dred aiui tittv-one, by Robert H. s^hannos, iii the Clerk's Oflice of the District 
C'jurt of the I'uited States for the Southern Dis'tricl of New-York. 



& 9j^ 



COITEITS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

r.VGK. 

§ 1. Theories— the more general, the more intelligible popularly; reason of 

the contrary projiulice; Its remetiy, . . . • . '3 

^. Necessity of a theory of History; detaiUt of, exemplitied in Macaulay, 

Prescott, Xiebuhf, . • • • • * , ' '^ 

;?. Prhiciplo <>i, indicated in early Greek literature ; applied to graduate 
the present state ot' liistorical composition, determines it to be ^yritton 
in Ameiioa, bioi,'i-aphically, in Uritaiii, empirically, in Germany 
.^cholastically, in lYanco, philosophically ; no^vhere scientiiically, . ».^ 

4. Consequences of. lackim; this scientirtc theory, . . . . '-^3 

5. Adymitaijes to accrue from establishin;; it, .... -o 
t>. In what inai\ner the present \york undertakes to supply it, . . ^i/ 
7. Character and scope of the task as embracing the theory of Cnilization, .lO 

GENERAL DIVISION. 

!?. Civilization divided into three Parts or Cycles, named Mythological, 
MetaphysiciU, Scientific ; then preceded by a prefatory Part in exposi- 
tion of the theory, . . . • • • ■ '^"^ 

PART I. 

Mechanism of Civilization. 

CHAPTER I. 

ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 

9 Current theories of Mental philosophy untenable, . . . :>5 

lo! Fallacy of the Metaphysical Schools; illustratetl in the Monkish Liturgies, 37 

11. Phronolosrical systems', their defects and excesses, . . .38 

12. Perception aiialvzed and illustrated, . . • . • . • li 

13. Is the sole uicuhy of Mind ; the other "powers," its progressive modes, 45 

14. This established deductively; confirmed from a noted error of Gall; 

also other historical facts,' . . _ . • , • . • ^^ 

15. These mental modes or Processes reducible to nine, and resolvable into 

three i^eneric Series or triads, of which the successive development 
constiuites the Cycles of Civilization ; confirmed by certain unex- 
plaineil structures' in the brain, and thus suggesting some now views 
of Phrenologs", . • • •,•,•. <.',.•■ "^^ 

16. This theory confirmed Mathematically, from Plato's doctrine of the tri- 

an'1-le ; Morally, bv the stages of individual growth, namely, infancy, 
adolescence, maturity ; Physiologically, by the three centres of vitwl 
or<^'anism, the stomach, heai-t and brain; Historically, by the tradi- 
tional attribution of the mental functions to each of these organs; 
Theologically, bv the trinities of all duly developed religions, . 54 

17. These three series of perceptive Processes resvdt from three progressive 

types of conception, which are Life, Will, Reason, . . . (M 

18. Difinition of Conception, and the other terms of the mental analysis, . 65 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

ANALYSIS OF COS MIC AL NATURE. 

PAGE. 

§ 19. Relations the sole objects of Perception, . . . . .66 

20. The repugnant tlieories of Fitche and Shelling to the contrary both 

absurd ; refutation also of Berkley and Hume"; confirmed by the va- 
garies of Leibnitz, ftlalbranche, &c. . . . . . ib. 

21. The positive or scientific conception of the Universe, . . .71 

22. Chronological order of its creation, and interdependence of its organic 

laws, ......... 72 

23. These arrangements the necessary results of motion operating upon 

matter, through space and time, and in the three mathematical forms 
of Number, Extension, Figure, . . . . . .87 

24. The phenomena of Life and Thought no real exceptions, . . 97 

25. True principle of a natural Classification of the Sciences ; cause of pre- 

vious failures; new construction of Aristotle's Categories ; examina- 
tion of the objections and the substitutes of Mr. Mill, . . .98 

26. Comparison of the mental and mundane scales in the specific series, . 102 

27. Same correlation tested in the terras of the generic series, . . 107 

28. Summary results of the Chapter, . . , . . .109 



CHAPTER III. 

ANALYSIS OF IMETIIOD. 

'*9, Definition of Method; confirraed etyraologically; value of this evidence, III 

30. Induction the sole method ; misapprehension of it by Bacon . . ih. 

31. Three Cycles or systems of Induction, the Logical, the Analytic, the 

Synthetic, • . . . . . . . .112 

32. Three specific forms of each cycle or kind; determined deductively, . 116 

33. The nine species verified historically; errors of Mr. Mill and others, 119 

34. Like verification of the three systems; Condiliac's theory and its critics, 126 

35. True theory or fundamental law of Induction ; vei-ified in the Rational 

stage ; refutation of the opposite systems of Mill and Whewell, . 132 

36. Induction in its Vital and Volitional Cycles; unfolds the same series, . 138 

37. Procedure in the former by Divinification; why the first Cycle is named 

Mythological, . . . . . . . .140 

38. Procedure on the Will-principle by Revelation ; why the second Cycle 

is termed Metaphysical, • . . . . . . ib. 

39. How man himself could in both have been the type of conception, ac- 

cording to the axiom of proceeding from the known to the unknown ; 
misapprehension of this rule by British writers, , . .145 

40. Explanation of the correlative terms simple and complex, general and 

special, abstract and concrete, &c., ..... 149 

41. The successive failures of previous systems of Method all incidental to 

the law of progression, ....... 154 

GENERAL RECAPITULATION. 

42. Human error symbolized in original sin; harmony of the three ana- 

lytic scales of 5iind, Matter, and Melhod exhibited in a diagram, . 160 

43. Successive origin and order of dignity among arts and institutions, . 164 

44. Identification of the nine organical lav.'s of nature in the specific series 

of nine sciences, ........ 169 

45. Astionomy and Geology both generic sciences ; embracing respectively 

the Mathematical and Physical triads, . . . . .171 

4G. Sociology, or the science of society, the third genus ; and as the last, 

embracing the whole evolution, ...... 173 

17. Conclusion, that Society is a natural body or being, the highest of ac- 
tual organizations, and to be superadded to all the extant maps of 
nature, even that of Comte, . . . . . .179 



CONTEXTS. 

ANALYSIS OF MOTIVE. 



PAGE. 

. 187 



§ 48. There are fundamentally but two motives, pleasure and pain, . 

49. Socially termed good and evil ; their nature polaric, in both cases, . iSS 

50. Their historical recognition, in the heaven and hell of the theologians, ib. 

51. Chief convicting arguments answered, . . . • -1^^ 

PART II. 

Etiology ofHistm-y, 

INTRODUCTORY. 

52. Chronological determination of the three Cycles on the map of history, IDO 

53. Order and incidents of their geographical evolution, . . .191 
54^ Succession and synchronism of the corresponding generic methods ex- 
hibited in a diagram, .....•• 1^3 

55. Two additional tests of the investigation, . . . . .195 

MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 
DIVISION. 

56. The three axioms submitted by the theory to be tested by history ; their 

embodiment in the general forms of Arts, Institutions and Sciences, . 197 

CHAPTER I. 

Philosophy of the Fine Arts. 

57. Deflnition, division and classification of, . . . , • 1^7 

58. Comparison of the aggregate results v/ith the theory and application of 

the latter to the several Arts in detail, . . . , . 2Q0 

LANGUAGE. 

59. The Verb the sole element of Speech ; confirmed by analysis of the 

common di\'i3ion, . . . . . . . . 202 

60. Grammatical forms of all idioms, and their true principle of classification, 205 
01. Natural formation of languages explained and exemplified, . .211 

62. Proceeds upon three sorts of verbal vocables, Denominatives, Determi- 

natives, Conjunctives, . . . . . . .214 

63. The processes of affixation the result of polarity in Lai^uage, . . 216 

64. Tested in the ancient classic, and the American Indian, idioms, . 217 

65. Objections to the new theory of language anticipated, . . .218 

66. It solves not only the regularities, but even reputed eccentricities, of 

all languages ; instanced in the Sanscrit family, the Chinese, &c. . 219 

67. Ludicrous errors of American and other philologers on these subjects; 

philosophy of the ignorance, ..... .222 

MUSIC. 

68. Origin, primitive grade of, and formation, on the ground of speech, . 224 

69. Comparison of the results with the theoretical tests, . . . 226 

POETRY. 

70. Deflnition and general division of; according to the theory, into Epic, 

Lyric, and Dramatic, ....... 227 

71. The Epic subdivided into Mythologic, Heroic, and Social, . . 229 

72. Rationale of the division, . . , . . . .230 

73. The Mythologic epic traced historically in its three progressive stages, 231 

74. The Heroic epic verified similarly ; the three formations identified in 

the typic result of the Iliad; also in Ossian, &c., . . .234 

75. Social epic; its theme Woman; begins with satirizing her; why, . 239 

76. Elements of, traced in the Hesiodic poems, the Jewish Scriptures ; its 

complete type in the Odyssey, . . . . . .240 



CONTENTS. 



§ 77. Difference ofepoch and diversity ofauthorship of the two Homeric epics, 244 

78. .artificial or imitated epics, ancient and modern, . . . 246 

79. The Lyric form; its three stages exempUfied historically, . . 250 

80. The theory verified also in the modifications of metre, . . .253 

81. The Drama, definition of; origin and elements in ancient Greece, . 256 

82. Natnre of the "Chorus;" Infant drama of the Mexicans and Hindoos, 257 
S3. Historical analysis of, in Greece ; ^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, 258 

GLYPHIC. 

84. Its province and three progressive forms determined, . . . 261 

85. Explains the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and all graphical systems, . 262 

86. Rationale of the phonetical alphabet; the vowel-pointing of the Hebrew, 264 

87. Colouring an accessory of; the origin of painting; Hindoo example, . 266 

PLASTIC. 

88. Pottery, the primary form of; then Casting; early proficiency of both, ib. 

89. Typography the third form; conformity to the general law of progression 270 

PAINTING. 

90. Historic subsequence of, and origin as a distinct art, . . .272 

SCULPTURE. 

91. New division of, and generic character; established historically, . 273 

92. That Masonry is a fiiie art proved in the history of the arch, . . 274 

APvCHlTECTURE. 

93. Its primitive erections, successively tombs, temples, palaces, . . 275 

94. Tumular formation of, first rock-cut and ending in necropoli ; why, . 276 

95. Next stage Mounded, ends in the pyramid ; why, . . . ib. 

96. Third stage Sepulchral, and ends in the labyrinth ; . . .277 

97. All illustrated in the architecture of Egypt, India, China, Etruria, &c., 279 

98. Classification of the Obelisk ; of the round towers of Ireland, &c., . 281 

99. Transition from the tomb to the temple, thence to the " templfe-palace ;" 

the stifles of architecture, ....... 282 

100. General character of in the first Cycle ; stijles conformable to the theory, 284 

MEDICINE. 

101. Origin of, and progressive stages— Sui-gerj^, Pharmacy, Hygienic, . 285 

102. Ancient and modern schools of; place of Homoeapathy ; all conforma- 

ble to the theory, ........ 286 

GOVERNMENT. 

103. Same progression in curing the body politic ; Punishment, Employ- 

ment, Education, ........ 288 

104. WAR, progressive principles of— Number, Evolution, Expedition, , 289 

CHAPTER II. 

Philosophy of Human Institutions. 

105. Society, distinction of from the Pr^c-social ages, . . . 291 

106. These ages divided into the Frugivorous, the Hvmter and the Shepherd, ib. 

107. The Agricultural state characterized ; the foundation of Society proper, 294 

108. Progressive division of all governments into Patriarchal, Monarchical, 

Republican, ........ 296 

109. Principle of, in the Physical Cjde ; Democracy, no governmental form, 297 

110. Stages of Patriarchy, tribes, castes ; illustrated in India, Egypt, Peru, 299 

111. Supersession of the Military by the Priestly castes ; consequence of the 

destruction of the latter in Greece, . . , . . . 301 

112. Organization of Society upon 677ace; result the City ; constitution of in • 

antiquity, ......... 302 

113. The final development of in the Patriarchal republic; diagram of the 

whole evolution, ........ 304 

1 14. European fossils of this primitive form the Popes and Patriarchs of the 

Catholic Church, . . . . . . . .307 

115. Conformity of the whole to the three tests of the theory, , . 308 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Philosophy of the Heathen Religions. 

PAGE. 

§ 116. Definition of religions in general; principles of, Force, Fraud, Duty, . 310 

117. Ministers of ; their origin, and relations to society, . . .311 

118. Division of Religion into Divinities, Riles, Doctrines, . . . 312 

DIVINITIES. 

119. General distinction of, into Good and Evil illustrated, . . . ib. 

120. The Evil earliest ; first instance Night ; this, the Inorganic formation, 313 

121. Common subdivision of both classes into Inorganic, Organic, Social, . 315 

122. Fetichistic worship ; diviuification of their food by savages ; the Cath- 

olic eucharist, ........ 317 

123. The first or Sabeistic worship in its gods of Goodness, . . .310 

124. Why man divinifies himself the last of all objects, . . . ib. 

125. Origin and nature of Polytheism or hero-worship, . . .321 

126. Receptacles of the deified Spirit ; first Inorganic, such as tombs, stars, 323 

127. Next, Organic, vegetables and animals; the latest mythology of Egypt, 324 

128. Why its civilization here failed ; cause of the riddle of the Sphinx, . 325 

129. This resolved in Greek statuary, which supplied the final class of en- 

velopes for the gods, ....... 327 

RITES. 

130. Progressive division of, into Sacrifice, Ceremony, Prayer, . . 328 

131. Curious exemplifications of their conformity to the theory, . . 329 

DOCTRINES. 

132. Turn all upon a future life ; notion of, necessary in mental infancy, . 331 

133. After existence come the considerations of form and place ; the Forms, 333 

134. Historically illustrated in the usages of all primitive nations, . . 330 

135. Gradual abstraction of the "spirit" from the buried body exemplified, 337 

136. Death considered by savages an absence ; hence it has no proper name 

in their idioms, ........ 33S 

137. Successive efibrts to preserve the body ; Inhumation, Embalming, In- 

cremation, . . . . . . . . .341 

138. Origin, explanation and illustration of the Metempsychosis, . . 342 

139. Places of the soul, Tartarus, Elysium, Purgatory, progressively, . 345 

140. Their regular apposition in high and low localities along the earth, . ib. 

141. Their uniform direction to the " West" explained, . . . 347 

142. The future state of the first Cycle not one of '' reward and punish- 

ment ;" error of Wai-burton's Divine Legation explained, . . 348 

143. That the Hebrews belonged to this barbarous period proved from 

various criteria, ........ 350 

144. Concluding reflections, ....... 353 



CHAPTER IV. 

SYSTEMS. 
Philosophy of the Ancient Schools of Speculation. 

145. The Greek sects of the physical epoch, Ionic, Eleatic, Italic, . . 353 

146. Character and position of Pythagoras and Socrates as introducing the 

Ethical series of sects, ....... 355 

147. Division of these, the Academic, Epicurean and Stoic systems as types, 358 

148. How each of these sects explained the existence of Evil, . . ib. 

149. The Greeco-Roman expectation of a messiah in Esculapius, . . 360 

150. Historical career of the Jews ; their prophesies of a messiah brought 

to Rome, ......... 362 

151. Solution of the problem of Evil By the Mosaic cosmogeny, . . 363 

SCIENCES. 

152. The three Mathematical forms; alone attained in this Cycle, . . 366 

1* 



Vin CONTENTS. 

PART III. 

METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

PAGE. 

§ 153. Readjustment of heads of investigatiou ; commences with Systems, . 367 

154. The Christian system contrasted with the Heathen; consonance of the 

contrast with the theory, . . . . . . , ib. 

155. Comparison in the results of method ; also, of conceptual views, . 370 

156. General comparison, . . . . . . .371 

CHAPTER I. 

Philosophy of the Christian Religions. 

157. Peculiarities of the Mosaic monotheism as distinguished from that of 

Greece, &c., ........ 373 

158. Application of the theory to Christianity confined to the head of Doc- 

trines, ......... 375 

159. Revival of the Greek schools in the three great heresies of the Church, 376 

160. Manichteism ; its Christian form the Divine and the Human will^ . 379 

161. Import of the attack of Pelagianism upon Original sin, . . .380 
16:2, Position of Pelagius; dilemma or double-edge of his doctrine, . 381 

163. Position of Augustine ; absurd consequences of the doctrine of Grace, 382 

164. Succeeding modifications of both the Heretical and Orthodox sides, . 384 

165. Occasion of Interpretation ; its three principles ; first result in " Dog- 

matical" theology, . . . . . . . .385 

166. Rationale of the second or " Moral" formation, .... 386 

167. Rise and reason of the third formation named the " Scholastic," . 387 

168. Character and cause of the Protestant Reformation, . . . 388 

169. Calvinism the most correct logical exhibition of the Christian system, 390 

170. Triumph of the heretical principle of Human will over the Divine, . 392 

171. The Catholic Church, and the secret of her perpetuity, . . . 393 

172. Her "ambiguous middle" between heresy and orthodoxy, . . 395 

173. How maintained, by a partition of the clergy into Secular and Regular, 396 

174. Representative of the two instruments of Progress — Abuse and Disorder, 398 

175. The Regular or " Casuistic" side etfectually heretical ; not so in theory, 401 

176. This proved, in its final development the Jesuits, . . ,402 

177. Their worst "maxims" conformable to the Christian hypothesis of duty, 403 

178. Does the end justify the means ? the question debated between a Jesuit 

and Janseuist, ........ 405 

179. Decided in favor of the Jesuit, by the true theory of Christianity, 

130. Theological position of the Port-Royalists defined, 

131, Progressive spirit and results of Jesuitism— Religion of the Future, 
182. Synthetic formation of Christianity ; Socinianism; Rationalism, 

■ 133. Romanism the opposite alternative of the Protestant sects ; and Pusey 
ism a half-way house on the passage. Conclusion, 



408 



414 



ERRATA. 

ill note, p. 78, towards the end of first paragraph, for "inquiries" read inquirers. 
In p. 115, about the middle, the phrase "I repeat" should succeed "still," and 

'• a" be or. 
In p. 205, about a third from the top, the word "co-operation" should be plui'al. 
lu p. 251, 10th line from the bottom, for "those" read of. 
In p. 339, 5th line from bottom, for " lament of Kenach" read or kcenach. 



TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE :— 



You are said, by panegyrists (including yqurselves), to be a " reflect- 
ing" people. Even detractors allow you to be a calculating one. That 
you are, at all events, a reading people may certainly be pretended, 
without incurring the least suspicion of either bias. I am, however, 
content to reckon but upon the qualities admitted on all hands, in ad- 
dressing the following pages to your common sense, for your common 
service. At the same time, I shall be gratified, nor of course at all 
surprised, to find you vindicate an equal title to the foremost and prin- 
cipal attribute. But you must be indulgent to a natural weakness, 
should I judge, in this particular, by that everlasting test of the scrib- 
bling generation, who measure the capacity of the public but by its 
special reception of their own wares. 

Respecting the real claims of mine, perhaps a word of explanation 
may be pardonable in publishing anonymously. Not, however, to 
point out by name, like the labels of a Dutch picture, the merits which, 
if any there be, you are hoped to find upon perusal. The more hum- 
ble as well as honest purpose is to spare the trouble of perusal to any 
amongst you who may look for merits to which the work makes no 
pretension. It makes no pretension, then, I frankly declare, to be a 
picture-book in letter-press ; it was designed for people past their 
mental childhood. It contains not, I think, a single munchausen story 
or " thrilling" description 5 though many things far more fitting to 
excite emotion, nay astonishment, in those who feel with any class of 
nerves below the scarf-skin. It is not written in the style called " ra- 
pid;" which it deems but piebald declamation, the clonic spasms of a 
sick, not the tonic vigor of a sound, intellect. Nor is it a book of 
mere statistics, though founded solely upon facts. Its doctrines are 
not decanted from the British periodicals ; nor even backed with the 
ponderosity of erudite quotation. Indeed, there are not perhaps half 
a dozen references in the volume ; an abstinence possibly due, how- 
ever, not more to virtue than to necessity, the whole library of the 
writer, at the place of composition, consisting of a few miscellaneous 
notes and no very gnat-straining memory. In fine, from cover to 



X DEDICATION. 

cover, your name is not once mentioned as the most free and enlight- 
ened and accomplished nation of the earth 5 though the work, I think, 
would do more than most that has been written to inform you pre- 
cisely as to what and where you really are, and do it in a way to 
spare you the blush of modesty or any other. Such among you as 
lead for those things should, therefore, turn at once elsewhere ; they 
axe to be found, as the lawyers phrase it, in all the books. The sort 
of book I offer you is a comprehensive compend, at once of original 
principles^ original discussion^ and original explanation. Nor, for all 
this (I must go on to own it, at the risk of damaging the publisher), do 
I pretend to have obtained its doctrines in any one of the mesmerio 
states. Indeed they will rather be found to savour of a very unspirit- 
ual vigilance. So that, in method as well as matter, they are things 
a good deal rarer than the literary comfitures enumerated. And they 
are also, I think, more suitable to your higher wants and better tastes. 

Allow me to justify the apparent presumption of this opinion by 
a few reflections. 

Suppose a people (whether real or hypothetical, does not matter) 
which, still comparatively young in the career of nationality, should 
moreover have commenced it under the following peculiar circum- 
stances : That the population consisted wholly, by direct immigration 
or proximate descent, of the physically laboring, and therefore men- 
tally undeveloped, classes. That the soil had also to be reclaimed from 
the wilderness. That the scientific processes, no less necessary to the 
situation, than impossible to the origination of the colonists themselves, 
could be derived from the mother countries, where many ages of 
elaboration had prepared the national intellect for the flower and fruit 
of taste and thought. And that, enriched by the joint agencies of uni- 
versal industry, boundless physical resources and the energetic ap- 
propriation of the mechanical products of foreign mind, the nation 
supposed should be pushed precociously from the useful to the orna- 
mental ; where imitation, having lost the guidance of practical neces- 
sity, and with it the minor faculty of special adaptation, would expend 
its burgess opulence in affectation of arts and letters, with a discern- 
ment as proverbial as the profusion. 

Now the consequence of this unfortunate or perhaps fortunate knot 
of influences it were not hard to predict from pure deduction. In the 
mental character of such a community will meet the seemingly oppo- 
site extremes, of self-opinionativeness and credulity — both, for want 
of breadth and depth. Its literary essays will scarce rise to any of the 
elevated walks of thought ; they will be parasitical, plagiaristlc, per- 



DEDICATION. XI 

sonal in matter, and in manner vague and vapid and verbose : for tiie 
national intellect (its presumption notwitlistanding) will be trite, timor- 
ous, time-serving — an empty head being as unable to stand upright as 
an empty bag, save by inflation. As to the knowledge of such a people it 
will be an odd but quite natural jumble of the most hard-headed prac- 
ticalism with the most soft-headed mysticism. For want of the princi- 
ples of method, as well as the processes of discovery — of which there was 
occasion to import but the productive results — it will be open to the 
coarsest quackeries, political, philosophical, literary, and the rest, if only 
the imposture be duly baited with the mystic name of science, and 
submitted to the infallible intelligence of the Chosen people in ques- 
tion. In short, this people, misconceiving the mechanical implements 
of its rapid prosperity, borrowed gradually and imperceptibly, to be 
the products of its own invention, will be led to push its " enterprise" 
into the field of letters and philosophy. Every man of them, with the 
art of reading, will think he holds thereby the key to the most recondite 
of the scientific contents of books ; and if his written lucubrations have 
ever stared him in the village newspaper, he doubts not his ability 
to manufacture the books themselves — if not also in fact the sciences 
to boot. Not original books, indeed ; not your theoretical reveries. 
He is too " practical" a man himself, and his estimate of the public in- 
telligence too patriotic, for that. His insolently humble object is but to 
shorten still the road of learning, all royal or republican as it ran, one 
would tliink, already. 

Might we not, in this slight fancy sketch, after the manner of Lava- 
ter, consider, with profit, certain points of resemblance to ourselves ? 
It is not that we borrow both our arts and our amusements, if only we 
borrowed them, as we did our institutions, with discernment and dar- 
ing. It is through borrowing, more or less, that nations have come to 
civilize each other. But there is a difference between borrowing and 
imitating. And it is no less than that between a loan and a theft. 
The former naturally tends to the interest of both the parties 5 the 
latter, to the real detriment of thief as well as victim. The unage 
may appear ungracious. But it will be pardoned, for the faithful 
brevity with which it paints the situation, at least in policy if not mo- 
rality, of this country tovN^ards British literature. 

ISTor is this all, though bad enough. It were bad enough to be 
bare imitators, hollow echoes, of even the best models. But it seems 
a perversity quite peculiar to leave the selection of this mental nutri- 
ment to men whose previous course of reading scarce ever passes the 
T&jige of a type-stick, and whose notions of literature, even as a thing 



XU DEDICATION. 

of traffic, are of a like catch-penny compass. The agents, however, 
are naturally of the same block as the contraband ; like publisher, no 
less than " like priest, &c." But the people tolerate the depravations 
of the piratical of either calling, only for want of that well-principled 
and thorough training in their legitimate guides, which alone does all 
that men themselves can do to give independence to intellect, and thus 
originality to literature and dignity to nations. 

For this, however, even the highest education were insufficient ; 
there must, also, be high inducements to mantain its impulse in after 
life. For, so long as money makes the man and meanness makes tha 
money, the easier route of degradation will be preferred, and the 
American Youth would drop the college culture which obtained them 
but contempt, take the counter or the bar-room as the road to Congress 
or to consideration, and with some scheme of peddling patronage tach 
their talents as well as conscience to the draggling train of some v/rig- 
gling demagogue of the day. This might make them " smart'- men ; 
a thing in which we abound already, and which, moreover, is but 
the meagre crop of a shallow soil ; whereas the products of towering 
thought demand the deeper loam of labor. But to give men forti- 
tude to mature the discipline of the college in the closet, in opposition 
to the rushing current of universal example, they should be shown that 
there was no blunder in expecting to "go a head," w^hUe appearing 
to sit stock-still to the five senses of the bustling vulgar. This, ac- 
oorduigly, it is one of the first duties of a popular government to give ; 
and of the press, in case of omission, to inculcate. 

And the press, who should be the torch-bearers to light us out of 
darkness, are they, for the most part, not mere beacons, divulging to 
others that we are in it ? In fact, taken with the demagogues they 
echo, they should perhaps rank with the pii'atical publishers, as an obsta- 
cle to the mental advancement of the country. For flattery is scarce less 
baneful to multitudes than to monarchs, whose dynasties, in a few 
generations, we see it besot into downright idiocy. Instead of ever 
suggesting what you are not, and have not done, but ought to be and 
do ; they are constantly telling you that your perfection is already un- 
rivalled in both respects. There is no shading in their platitudes ; they 
leave no perspective for your progression. It is not thus that men or 
nations are stimulated to great things. It was not so that the first of 
generals, one who could marshal motives as he did armies, made still 
grander the grandest nation of the earth. ISTever, even beneath the me- 
morable " sun of Austerlitz," did he praise those prodigies of valoiir 
without reserve. — Soldiers, you have done well i you have captured so 



DEDICATION. Xm 

many thousand prisoners, taken so many stands of colors, so many 
pieces of cannon ; you have beaten an enemy two or three times your 
number ; you have scattered to the winds the coalitions of kings 5 you 
have subj ugated Europe from Madrid to Moscow ; and this while 
poorly clad and ill-provisioned. But, soldiers, there are still greater 
tilings for you to do ; you have not yet equalled the armies of Caesar 
and Alexander. Here — in this double suggestion, of something 
greater to be always done, and that theUke has been done by others — 
we recognize the genius born to move men to great achievements. 

And especially would these stimulants befit the American people, 
who have at least one originality, and one well vvorth a dozen others j I 
mean docility. Like Ajax, they want but light to brave the very immor- 
tals of European genius ; and to seek it, they need but to know that they 
do want it. Practically, the London fair will do something to this end , 
The following pages may have the effect, upon the broader ground of 
principle, not perhaps to supply this light, but to show at least its ab- 
sence ; to open you a double vista, along the transverse track of time, 
through the mountain piles of merchandise that shut in your horizon 5 
to perforate the locusi-cloud of noisome pohticians that hides the sun 
of your true greatness in the firmament of the future. 

So much for the special traits for which the book has been ad- 
dressed you formally. As to the motives of the writer's frankness, I 
submit they should less be questioned than had he chanted you as 
^' great, glorious and free" at every page. He in truth is one who 
would have you free not only politically but also mentally ; gi-eat not 
merely materially but morally, magnanimously ; glorious in somethincr 
of that which has made sacred to all posterity the petty canton of craggy 
Attica ; while the treasures of Babylon, the commerce of Carthage and 
the conquests of Rome are long forgotten or detested : one in fine, who 
would have you the august model, not the adroit monkey, of the na- 
tions ; and this not more for your ov/n, than the general sake of hu- 
manity. And it would be precisely for this reason (if self-respect did 
not also forbid it) that he does not flatter you, in even that immemorial 
license-to-lie, a dedication. He, however, pays you a higher compli- 
ment than dedication has ever paid, that of trusting you can hear and 
profit by unpalatable truths, told as well of the patron himself as the 
subject. 

THE AUTHOR. 



Oo, iittlc book from this my solitude, 
T cast thee on the waters ; go thy way, 

And if, as I believe, tliy vein be good, 
The world will find thee . . . [ut no distant day.J 

SOUTHEV. 



YESTiaES OF CIYILIZATION: 



OR 



THE ^ETIOLOGY OF HISTORY, 

KELIGIOUS, ESTHETIC, POLITICAL AND rniLOSOPHICAL. 

mTEODUCTIO^^. 

Explanatory of tlic Object and Character of the Worl-. 

§ 1. Let it be repeated incessantly : vSociety, the human 
intellect, is entering, and for the first time, upon the Ages 
of Science. It is an advent to be hailed with joy, but to 
be met with preparation. It brings to man the saving- 
truth and the resting term from those blind disorders 
which have hitherto beset his social and his mental career; 
bat the boon is offered him on condition that he shall be, 
this time, his own redeemer. In proclaiming the new era, 
then, it should be expounded intelligently; not echoed 
mechanically, as by a parrot or newspaper. 

But the best mode of bringing its import to popular 
recognition, no less than to philosophical comprehension, 
must be by recurring to principles. For the first princi- 
ples of all real science are among the tritest common- 
places of the general understanding. And the more fun- 
damental the science itself, and consequently its elements, 
the more simple, intelligible, and even impressive will 
2 



10 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZA'JION. 

prove this method. But the object here proposed relates 
to the elementary laws of that universal science of hu- 
manity, called Civilization, and from which all the special 
sciences, as well as arts and institutions, have successively 
and subordinately emanated. The doctrines, therefore, of 
the social should, like those of the solar system, be but so 
much the more accessible, for the very reason of gene- 
rality. 

Nor is it, in fact, this quality, as is vulgarly repeated 
that has caused the po2">ular prejudice against theory. It 
is not that sound theories can be too general for plain 
minds. For what is it that has enslaved this class of minds, 
throughout the past, to the vicious and wild hypotheses of 
superstition and metaphysics? What is it that mak^s it 
nearly impossible (as courts of justice and philosophers 
know) to get illiterate persons to narrate even the simplest 
of facts without obtruding a theory in almost every phrase ? 
Why, nothing but the popular necessity for generalization, 
simplicity, system. The defect, then, on the contrary, is, 
that the theories propounded hitherto have mostly been 
too special, too narrow, and thus too numerous. Add to 
which the consequence that they were commonly conflict- 
ing, and therefore manifestly erroneous in part, if not in 
whole. In short, the people have been asked to study the 
tree of knowledge ill rough the branches, where the 
seeming severalty, mvdtitude, and confusion of the sources 
combine to distract, if not dismay, even the most disci- 
plined of intellects ; they were rarely carried back to even 
the secondary principles of consurgence, of classification, 
in the main limbs ; but never, hitherto, to the supreme 
simplification in the trunk. And then when, tossed about 
and nonplussed upon this sea of superficialities, they 
turned, in disgust, from the prostituted name of theory, 
the pedants and half-philosophers gave currency to the 
natural prejudice, that the thing is wliolly beyond the reach 
of the popular apprehension. Whereas, if their realty 
preposterous order had been inverted ; if the people had 
been taught to begin with nature herself at the root, or 
rather with the seed (for it is in this sense of re-production 
that the tree is truly known by its fruit ; it can merely be 
recognized by it .in the sense of a product) ; had this been 
done, I say,'and the subject presented them by the sub- 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

stantial and familiar end, little more would be really- 
requisite to derive pleasure and even profit from a correct 
exposition of the highest principles of science, than that 
grade of sense which is, so to say, the touch of the intel- 
lect, and which is designated by the name of "common," 
from its assumed universality. 

To the facility of comprehension, this course would 
add, moreover, the certainty of producing practical con- 
viction. For, besides conciliating and co-ordinating the 
several systems and suggestions relative to all that is sound 
in the actual aggregate of our knowledge, it would serve, 
at the same time, to account for the erroneous as well as 
the true, and thus secure, in the surest manner, their 
rejection or reception. I conclude, therefore, that a the- 
ory, thus comprising all principles and comprised in all 
experience, may be made evident and irresistible to the 
plainest understanding. And it is, accordingly, by means 
of this plain, although peculiar procedure, that I dare 
hope, in this little work, to give the largest generality of 
readers a conception, clear and consecutive, of both the 
natural laws of civilization and the essential conditions of 
science. 

My direct survey will, on this occasion, be confined to 
history proper, that is to say, the past and present state of 
mankind. But the reader, left aloft upon this vantage- 
ground of all ages, and with the telescope of theory, face io 
face with the approaching future, will he resist the invita- 
tion to look over and prophesy ? And will not his authority 
be the same experience, only infinitely more complete, 
which grounds the daily previsions of practical life, and 
which, when perfect, gives infallibility to the predictions of 
all science ? For by no different mode of assurance does the 
hypothesis of gravitation compel the assent and expecta- 
tions of the civilized world, respecting the invisibly 
remote and indefinitely future. And Revelation itself, in 
fine, which, like the fabled bird of paradise, has been 
thought to never light upon the profane earth of experi- 
ence, does it not rest its new prophecies upon a like 
appeal to the old % Showing that precedent is a valid 
warrant in the judgment of the Divinity and the surest 
passport of his promises to the popular acceptance, 

§ 2. Nor are the evidence and efficiency of such a 



12 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

theory more undeniable than the urgency of reducing it to 
application. I pass over the crying necessity of a prin- 
ciple of classification among even those subjects advanced 
already, more or less imperfectly, to the state of science. 
Let us consider but the most imperfect and most import- 
ant of all, the subjects of Man and of Society, as they 
continue to be conceived by the current writers of history. 

For is not historical composition, at the present day 
more than ever, a jumble of opinions without consistency, 
facts without cohesion, traditions without vitality, in short, 
of examples without instruction "? No regular principle 
of order in graduating the events; no rational scale of 
appreciation in judging the actors. Take, for instance, 
one of the latest and most lauded essays in this line, the 
pictorial history of England in letter-press, by Macaulay. 
You find it pronounce at every page, for instance, upon 
Roundhead or Cavalier, upon Quaker or King of the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries, according to the flippant 
morality and factitious science of a Downing-street politi- 
cal economist of the nineteenth. So of course with even 
the foremost of our own imitative historians. Mr. Pres- 
cott, in the introduction to his chronicle of Peru (a work 
composed throughout with the philosophy of a fairy tale), 
descants upon the civilization of that semi-savage people 
as having been consummate in particular respects; while 
in other things he leaves it to wallow in the lowest condi- 
tion of barbarism. He did not perceive that he was im- 
puting to nature a combination quite as monstrous as that 
which Horace imagined in satire to caricature the extrava- 
o-ance of fiction, " et huraano capiti cervicem jungens 
vequinam." 

And if no equally broad absurdity, in social statics too, 
•be found to stain the polished pages of Macaulay, it is 
perhaps only because his subject was, intrinsically, far less 
simple than the isolate and infant empire of the Incas. 
For the mongrel complication of every thing English 
would dissemble as well as occasion this default of phi- 
losophy. In fact, instead of striving against the aggra- 
vated difficulty, the " canny Scot" would seem to have 
set himself to turn it to account. As if with an eye to the 
puerile, misnamed the popular, taste of the day, his com- 
bination rarely rises above the rudimentary stage of 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

grouping, anil evon liis grouphigs are equally destitute of 
logical graduation. He gives you a gallery of portraits, 
quite after the manner of Sir Peter Lely's of several of 
the same personages, and strung together by little else 
than the volume that contained them; even as the colored 
characters, by the wall or the chamber. In his history, as a 
whole, there is perhajis less of even picture in the sense of 
composition, and certainly less of progression in the sense of 
development, than there is of both in the Rake's Progress 
of Hogarth. It may be, however, that the English are 
still, like other people, to be lured to read by pictures 
and symbols. The purpose was not (o censure either the 
author or the object. I only specify his work, as being 
the latest in time, and among the highest in reputation of 
our literature, to illustrate the actual crudeness of the pre- 
vailing conceptions concerning the science of Society, the 
philoso23hy of history. But to give pertinence to the 
instance, it was requisite to show that the absence of such 
philosophy is the cardinal defect in this otherwise saga- 
cious critic and elegant rhetorician. It is, in truth, that 
all-pervading " something-somewhere-wanting" which has 
been felt by every sensible reader of his book, and which 
his numerous reviewers have been beating the air so 
vaguely, in the purblind endeavor to point out. 

This latter failure is a farther evidence of the scientilic 
immaturity in question. The critics fumbled, because 
still less informed, as might well have been expected, than 
Macaulay himself In short, then, our whole historical 
and political literature, v/hether British or American, 
betrays the same hlind side. But there is a circumstance 
more conclusive still, as well as concise, upon this point, 
than the direct examination of the most eminent of speci- 
mens : I mean the fact that both those countries find their 
ideal of a philosophical historian in the doubtless admira- 
ble, but merely critical, Niebuhr. Not, of course, that 
the true historian ought not to be a critic; but that he 
ought to be something much more and much higher. And 
I must be pardoned the presumption of finding this high 
deficiency, not perhaps of philosophizing but of philoso- 
phy, of science, in even this reputed reformer of History. 

For example, he talks (1) of certain " dull falsifiers 

(1) Vol. I. chap. Romulus and Numa, note 46. Eng. Trans 
2* 



,14 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

being not more offensive than the men who helped them- 
selves out with a pneumatology such as we find traces of in 
Dionysius ; where instead of Mars Gradivus, whose per- 
sonality they were ashamed to admit, some demon * whose 
existence is generally believed,' is said to have been the 
father of Ilia's children. Men could reconcile themselves 
(adds Niebuhr, contemptuously) to this belief in goblins, 
or at least to professing it, and thus affected a compromise 
and an alliance with bigotry." Here, it seems to me, is a 
piece of social philosophy, which in depth, consistency, 
every thing but its honest spirit, might have proceeded 
from the shallowest ape of Voltarian irreligion. It betrays, 
in almost every syllable, an utter irrecognition of both the 
progressive march of the human mind collectively, and 
the corresponding modification of conception in public 
writers according to their different positions down the line 
of evolution. The expressions : "helping themselves out 
with pneumatology" — "being ashamed to admit the per- 
sonality," &:c., commit the coarse yet common oversight 
already remarked in the less exaggerated instance of 
Macaulay : for they involve the psychological anachronism 
of imjmting the rationalistic sentiments of the nineteenth 
century to Dionysius and other historians of polytheistic 
antiquity. Moreover, the writer had evidently no notion 
that the pneumatology he denounces, with its goblins, 
fairies, angels, &c., constitutes a transition stage, quite 
normal and necessary, between the mythological hypothe- 
sis of personified causation and the modern theory of sci- 
entific laws. But mark, above all, the inconsistent uncha- 
ritablcness of charging those writers, of two thousand 
years ago, with "hypociisy," because forsooth they cred- 
ited the pious story of Ilia's children. The denuncia- 
tion of " hypocrisy," and "alliance with bigotry," I ad- 
mire. But did Niebuhr know of no story of equal, 
perhaps greater absurdity, which was credited, if not by 
:himself, at least by multitudes of the learned in even his 
own " enlightened age ?" Did he forget, in particular, — 
and here without the poor excuse of a prudent hypocrisy 
— did he forj^et a certain beinff no less fantastic than the 
lover of Ilia, and supposed in fact to perform the same 
officious services, whose " existence was generally be- 
lieved" throughout entire Europe up to the last century, 



INTRODUCTION'. 15 

and is believed to this day perhaps in tlie country of Nie- 
biihr : I mean the notably gallant goblin called the Incu- 
bus ? And if he could not, as a man of reflection, have 
forgotten that the errors alluded to have been credited by 
the multitude, if not the learned, of modern times, what 
are we to think of the inference which imputes hypocrisy 
to ancient authors in assenting passively to the like illu- 
sions at that day ? We must think that it confesses, by 
necessary implication, both an ignorance of the great fact, 
that the anilities of the people in a particular age, must 
have been the creed of so-called philosophers in a pre- 
vious, and a consequent absence of the fundamental 
requisite in a truly philosophical historian. 

§ 3. And as with the English and Germans in this 
department, so with all the literate countries. With each, 
however, in a very different degree. This gradation of 
immaturity might be characterized as follows, respecting 
the four nations in which both the present argument and 
readers are chiefly interested. Regretting the " bad emi- 
nence," I must begin the order with our own country, 
and say : That history is still wiitten in America hiograjohi- 
ccdly ; in Britain, empir'icaUy ; in G^eYxn^iij , scliolasticaUy ; 
in Yrance aione, philosojihicaUy. But nowhere as yet is 
it written scientifically. 

I am, for the present, quite prepared to hear this 
peremptory judgment pronounced presumptuous, in both 
its absolute and comjiarative determinations. But the 
reader so demurring will be pleased to await the sequel 
for the sole apology I have to offer — the proof And this 
apology, I once for all declare, must apply to all omissions 
to drape my strictures, national or personal, with those 
knightly courtesies of the quill, which are denied to me 
by (among other things) the extreme limits of these 
pages, together with the extreme extent of the survey 
assigned them. At the same time, a short statement, 
necessary here to explain the terms, will also indicate pro- 
visionally the principle of the above scale. 

History is observed to proceed upon three descriptions 
of subjects successively, namely. Individuals, Events, In- 
stitutions. Primitively it is a romance of heroes; then, a 
record of battles; after, a register of usages. A like pro- 
gression is operated laterally, so to say, in each of these 



16 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

divisions, vvbicb expand, the first, irom the personage to 
the tribe, and tben the dynasty ; the second, from the battle 
to the campaign, and then the war ; the last, from the city 
to the state, and after, the empire. The order of this 
double progression — which will be remarked to be from 
the physical object to the mechanical effect, and thence Vo 
the habitual relation, as centres of grouping — is a neces- 
sary result of the structure of the human mind, as^ will be 
demonstrated, with the rest of the statement, hereafter. 
It is enough, for the present, to know that the facts are 
invariably conformable, in the historical literature of every 
people possessing any thing of the kind ; from ancient 
Greece, for example, down to actual America. 

The sovereign example of Greece it will not be diffi- 
cult to verify, in spite of the imperfect record of her early 
bibliography. During the two primordial stages, of heroes 
and battles, it is clear the poets were the only historians ; 
of whom Homer is an instance or an epitome. The regis- 
tration of usages would pass from the verse of Hesiod to 
the nascent prose of the "logographs," or writers of tra- 
ditions, as the historians were styled, accordingly, down to 
the times of Herodotus. This was also the general nature 
of the Pontifical annals of ancient Rome, and the ecclesi- 
astical history of modern Rome commences with the same 
forms, in the legends and chronicles of the monks. The 
next advance the Greeks named "origines," because this 
class of productions related to the foundation of families, 
cities, nations. From the orii^in, to which natural curi- 
osity is the first attracted, the Greek intellect is next found 
grappling with the actual of the same subjects ; whence 
the special designations of Argolica, Boeotica, Egyptiaca, 
meaning the things of Argos, &:c. ; exactly as res gestce 
was long the only name for history with the Romans^ too : 
a sure sign that the conception of the subject by both these 
nations lacked then the unity which necessitates a proper 
appellation. This was the chronicle proper, of which 
Froissart is a modern sample; for it turned chiefly upon 
things that pass in time : whereas the preceding anti- 
quarian class conceived them in place, in locality. Now 
it was the combination of both these bases of comprehen- 
sion that so significantly won Herodotus the title of" father 
of history." And yet the theme of Herodotus still was a 



INTRODUCTION. 1*7 

particular war, the Persian. The loose generality, geo- 
graphical and chronological, of the work, is but the episodic 
concatenation of the epical artist, not the logical co-ordi- 
nation of the historian. The latter quality had its first 
commencement a little later in Thucydides; who, to sup- 
ply the power of combination by the expedient of com- 
pactness, is found on the one hand, to contract the range 
of his predecessor to a single country, and on the other to 
choose the action not of a single campaign, like Herodotus, 
but the successive actions of a protracted war. This dawn- 
ing of philosophy in the composition of history, is also 
visible in another expedient of the same writer; for he 
was the first, I think, to attempt the analysis and portrai- 
ture oicliaractcr. In this respect Thucydides might be 
considered the ancient analogue of Macaulay in England 
and Lamartine in the Girondins. But it was not till much 
later, and after the fall of the Greek republics, that this 
national nucleus in the individual was extended to a gene- 
ral history of Greek institutions, or even events. It never 
reached the w4der combination of foreign countries. To 
this day it has nowhere reached to the amplitude of the 
species. Not that there have not long been compilations 
called universal histories. But such jumbles are scarce 
more the result of philosophical comprehension than the 
equally " universal" cosmogonies or genetical fables, which 
the Greeks too, like all other barbarians, begun early with 
imagining, much after the fashion of iNIoses — the inspira- 
tion of course excepted. 

Such was the regular march of historical composition 
in Greece, where its origin had been most indigenous and 
its evolution least disturbed. The gradation has been also 
repeated in the subsequent nations of Europe, despite the 
temptation of ancient models and the introduction of other 
doctrines. It is that the human mind, like the body, in 
order to reach a certain goal, must pass inevitably through 
all the intermediate stages ; the transit may be more or 
less rapid according to the mode of conveyance — that is 
to say the choice of methods, which are the vehicles of the 
intellect : but though the distance may be thus abridged, 
even to illusory disappearance, not a point of the space 
can be ever annihilated or traversed out of the natural 
series. If now this uniform and necessary series of his- 



18 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

torical composition be applied lo the actual state of the 
subject in the four countries compared, there will be no 
difficulty in admitting, or at least in understanding, the 
characteristics ascribed to them respectively. What is 
that state 1 

With respect to this country the case is too familiar to 
need discussion. Do not our libraries labour loathingly, 
groan patriotically, with pretended histories, not only of 
the several States of the Union, and the previous colonies 
individually, but almost of every township and village of 
each ? While on the other hand, we are still in most things, 
save the easy attribute of the name, without a general 
history of our juvenile nationhood. In foreign history, 
which appertains to a still wider range of development, 
scarce any thing has been even attempted. I recollect 
but Mr. Prescott's conquest of Mexico and Peru, and reign 
of Ferdinand and Isabella : and both those subjects, it is 
curious to note, belong to the alleged grade of historical 
infancy — the events of a battle, and the biography of indi- 
viduals. So also with our domestic histories of the adja- 
cent, the more general scope ; the actors and events of the 
Revolution form the main staple, and the works are but 
collections of battles and biographies. In fact biography 
constitutes our national distinction, our sjyccmlite. As in 
the infancy of other countries the historical art began v/ith 
heroes, so we too have perhaps several lives of each of the 
^'heroes" of the Revolution. And this may be proper or 
pious enough. But there is scarce a pettifogger who rants 
an " argument," in common law heroics, before two benches 
and a Ward-Justice, or a sentimental lady who metalli- 
fies sighs in a magazine, with whose interesting lives 
and faces, in fair but fallacious profile, some officious 
speculator in human folly is not found to favour our reading 
public. Does a meichant's clerk emerge to fortune, per- 
haps by accident, perhaps embezzlement, we are af- 
flicted with his " Life" under pretext of his " enter^Drise." 
Things in short are going to the pass that every hostler and 
chambermaid will, as well as our Assemblymen and Mem- 
bers of Congress, avail themselves of the biographical da- 
guerreotype of the press. It has been long remarked that 
America was the paradise of portrait-painters. And now 
that the daguerreotype has vulgarized the expedient of 



IN'JRODUCTIOK. 19 

colour, it is the same national trait that turns the crowd into 
a new channel, the biographic, for the more diffusive dis- 
tinction of publication. But it was never explained, that this 
propensity is not peculiar to the American character, but 
is common to all nations at a similar stage of development ; 
for all begin in all the arts, including painting and history, 
with subjects of pictorial interest and individual simplicity. 
The exaggeration of the foible here is caused alone by 
three circumstances : — That our national existence com- 
menced when the arts in question could be borrowed from 
communities more advanced ; That our institutions are 
democratic, which tends to universalize the natural strug-. 
gle to extricate one's head above the suffocating multi- 
tude ; and finally, The commercial spirit, which speculates 
upon reputation and is fain to take notoriety for its symbol 
or substitute. This is the triad of peculiarities which, 
superinduced upon our mental nonage, keeps the concep- 
tion of Historical writing down to the primary form of 
biography, and degrades our biographical essays, it must 
be added, into puffing. Hence our place on the historical 
scale seems well described as the Biographical. 

The next grade is the Empirical, which I have said 
to be the place of the English. British historians have 
long outgrown the puerile personality of the preceding 
stage. The biographical department has retired into the 
sphere of public life ; it is now reserved for men who have 
influenced conspicuously the government or the glory of 
the country. The essays in history proper offer also con- 
siderable advancement, in the generalization not only of 
Events, but even of Institutions : they treat of an adminis- 
tration, a revolution, a dynasty, a constitution. But these 
several aciions or organs of the political body are rarely 
as yet conceived in more comprehensive aggregates, and 
are never co-ordinated upon systematic principles. Even 
Hume, who alone has attempted a general history of the 
Island (the others being doubtless copies, at least in the 
conception); even Hume, the philosopher, betrays in the 
moGt signal manner this empirical condition of the national 
mind. For he commenced, it is known, the composition 
as well as publication of his history quite epicaliy, though 
accidentally so, in the middle, and with the Stuart dy- 
nasty. He began it, then, with no general unity of prin- 



20 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

ciple or plan. Not merely this, but the original theme 
belonged, we see, to the Biographical period : embracing, 
however, its ultimate extension to a royal line : while Mr. 
Prescott took an individual, or, to be strictly just, a mar- 
ried pair. Nor was this fundamental defect at all supplied 
by Hume's philosophy; which, though penetrating, was 
of the same piecemeal and fragmentary character — merely 
negative and critical, not constructive, not scientific. But 
nothing of even this kind in any other British historian — 
with the grand exception of Gibbon, who, however, 
was a Frenchman, in all but the mere vocabulary. 
The others would seem to lack either the comprehen- 
sion or the docility to even appropriate the disjecta mem- 
hra of a borrowed philosophy : an expedient of which 
Mr. Bancroft is said to present a tolerable example. As 
to tracing systematically the universal laws of nature in 
the varieties and vicissitudes of society, the idea never 
found a lodgment in the head of a genuine Anglo-Saxon; 
with whom the ultimate principles of political science are 
Magna Charta and the Common law, and the sole canon 
for interpreting them " sound English common sense." 

The place of the Germans is kindred in order but 
opposite in extreme, and results from a social process 
which will be familiar to us in the sequel, and which for 
the present I may call the reactionary oscillation of the 
human mind. But the opposition, it is worth noting, is 
duly pointed more precisely towards the American off- 
shoot, than to the British branch of the Teutonic family. 
And it is this kinship in contrariety that inspires the predi- 
lection, deemed so preposterous, of our statistically prac- 
tical people for the cloudiest of modern metaphysicians : 
while the Germans will swing, in turn, into the most plod- 
ding of pragmatists. The three nations rejoresent the 
stages of historical transition from the theological to the 
philosophical form of conception. But be the explanation 
what it may, the German intellect or imagination embraces 
all the topics of the specified progression together, persons, 
events, institutions, and these, of all places and times. It 
conceives history nationally, generally, universally. But 
the principles (when there are any) of expounding, and 
the method of arranging, the materials, are not always 
deduced from scientific or otherwise solid inductions of 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

fact. Still less does the German ever consti'uct, like the 
Englishman, upon the petty precedents of a sure, indeed, 
if short-sighted, practicalism. He usually moves in the 
mid-air of some half-mythical, half-metaphysical hypothesis. 
Or if he lights upon the earth, it is to burrow into it mole- 
like, not much minding by what method or to what end. 
The proof of this; because the consequence, is seen in that 
vague confusion and sterile copiousness which are observed 
to characterize the writings, especially historical, of the 
Germans. For want of arrangement, of selection, in short 
of science, they only fluctuate, as explained, between the 
kindred, though contrasted, vices of a puerile minuteness 
and a mystical universality. This, it is true, has obtained, 
in countries correspondingly backward, the double credit 
of profundity and research. But the thing is grossly illusory. 
Accordingly, much of the research is now daily discarded 
as rubbish. Much, too, of the profundity will disappear 
with the progress of light.; for it has in large part its origin 
where Voltaire placed the learning of the priesthood — in 
the ignorance of their admirers. This dark profundity 
has, accordingly, been always seen through by the French, 
and is aptly ridiculed in the anecdote they tell of the Ger- 
man professor, who introduced a course of astronomy with 
an analysis of the alphabet : for were not letters the ele- 
mentary constituents of words, and words the medium 
through which the lectures must be delivered ! Buffon 
defined genius to consist in patience ; it is the genius, at all 
events, of the Germans. — Nor do these strictures imply 
disparagement, as they certainly design no censure. This 
speculative euphuism is quite normal in the case. With 
intellect undeveloped by one-half the civilized experience 
of the Gallic French ; with imagination consequently un- 
disciplined to the processes^ and the precision of science, 
these promising schoolboys of the new era dissert luxuri- 
antly upon all subjects, learnedly upon all occasions. They 
are a modernized transformation of those doctors of the 
middle ages who professed to dispute indifferently de omni 
scibili. But history affords the amplest field for extrava- 
gance in this tendency. It was in this respect alone that 
the German historians were designated by the term Scho- 
lastic. 

The historical writers of France were distinguished as 
3 



22 VESTIGE3 OF CIVILIZATION. 

Philosophical. Not because they talk of natural laws of 
organization in society, and of progression in humanity. 
The Germans likewise talk, and even theorize, in a like 
strain. Nay, the English themselves are come to recog- 
nize, at least in the abstract, the possibility of a natural 
science of society, and one more perfect, they concede 
already, than their own notable " perfection of reason." 
And as for us Americans, if you judge by terminologies, 
would we not pass for a nation of philosophers ] It is not, 
therefore, the employment of scientific terms that assures 
the pre-eminence of the French. It is their conception, 
at once more sound and systematic, of the things, as 
evinced alike in the artistical composition of their books, 
the methodical prosecution of their inquiries, and the posi- 
tive and precise spirit of even their most transcendental 
speculations. These are qualities not so easily plagiarized 
as a nomenclature. But as only the latter is introduced 
by foreign writers or reformers, their less sophisticated 
readers, especially in this country, perceiving nothing but 
the barren formula or the bare name, are apt to stigma- 
tize, not merely the importer, as what he commgnly is, a 
mountebank, but also the French fabricator as consequent- 
ly something worse. Yet the parties differ widely as do 
the author who executes, and the speculator who traf!icks 
in, a work of exquisite art. To the one, it is nothing more 
than apiece of material merchandise, good to gratify one's 
vanity or to cover his nakedness : to the other it is the 
symbol of a scientific triumph in the combinations of tissue 
and the harmony of coloring. And thus the French, who are 
the great artists of the age in social theories, are imagined 
by those who view them but through the magic lantern of 
quackery, to present some strange mixture of the vision- 
ary and the wicked : even as the populace of the dark 
ages, on seeisg the figures of the mathematicians, were 
similarly certain of their intercourse with the devil. To 
the intelligent, however, the agitation is but a sure sign 
that the French mind is now mature for the regular con- 
sideration of this most complex of subjects philosophically. 
Of which, in fine, I could not add perhaps a more preg- 
nant or pertinent proof than that the word historical is not 
used in French, as in our own and other idioms, to denote 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

a mere matter of record ; but is now become significant 
of matter of fact, in contradistinction to matter of fable. 

Still, philosophy, at least in the usual acceptation, is 
not science. It is only the genus of which science is the 
most perfect species. We may predicate of every science 
that it is a philosophy, as we may (to borrow a trite ex- 
ample) of every man, that he is an animal ; but we could 
no more justly say of what have been hitherto called phi- 
losophies, that they are all sciences, than we could of all 
animals, that they are men. According to this distinction, 
the science of social history would imply the philosophy 
of civilization. But the latter may exist without the 
former, and must precede it. It is in fact the lofty ground 
upon which French historians are now entering. For 
even of these, I recollect but one who, as yet, has ap- 
proached the subject in its completely abstract character 
and name ; and his performances are naturally but the 
fragmentary specimens, which we just saw constitute 
the weak commencements in the wider ranges of the his- 
torical art. I allude to M. Guizot's books on French and 
European civilization. 

I was warranted, then, in affirming that history h 
written nowhere in the spirit or the method of science. 
Also, that its actual condition in the leading countries of 
the age, is still remote from this destination, in the inverse 
order of the gradation described. Having planted these 
posts of distance (for they are not offered as the proper 
principles of classification, which will be found elsewhere) 
— having opened these gleams of historical perspective in- 
passing vindication of an unpalatable truth, they will also 
serve, provisionally, to give the reader a clearer insight 
into the full enormity of the general practice of our lite- 
rature. 

§ 4. For what, in sum, is this practice? Is it not 
chargeable with treating biography, morals, history, socie- 
ty, civilization, even science itself, without the semblance 
of a fixed standard, whereby to judge the principles, the 
actions, the events, the characters, the objects, the ages, 
the institutions considered 1 Does it not, on the contrary, 
vary its test, and with an aggravating unconsciousness, 
according to the locality, to the epoch, to the sect, to the 
sentiments or even the idiosyncracies of the several 



24 VESTIGES OF CR^ILIZATION. 

writers 1 The student of inert and objective minerals is still 
in quest of such a type, as the grand prerequisite of his par- 
ticular science. But our writers upon active, organical, in- 
tellectual and social man, do not even know their ignorance 
of this first condition of all science ; a condition, too, the 
more indispensable as the subject matter is more complex, 
and the progress of civilization the more advanced. 
During the earlier stages of society, this ignorance, then 
necessary, is provided for, as usual, in the order of nature. 
There is little to be written, and fewer still to write ; and 
the rude chronicler merely registers the impressions on 
his five senses, or recites, if he go beyond his immediate 
country or contemporaries, but things recorded in the 
same simple and sympathetic situation. But no differences, 
no disorder, where there are as yet no doctrines, or none 
but imagination to which nothing is then a *' stumbling- 
block." Afterwards, however, as illusion gives way be- 
fore opinion, the disorder proceeds develojnng itself by a 
twofold progression — the multiplication of materials and the 
diversification of minds. Arrived at present (as we shall 
after see) at the critical period of excess, the gross result 
imposes upon historians the task of pronouncing, at every 
sentence, upon the accumulations of ages and nations. 
And for this what is their present criterion 1 Why, only 
the correlatively chaotic rule, of tracing back empirically 
each fragment of the \ast detritus to its native place among 
a thousand systems ; or, on the other hand, the process, 
which is the usual one, as just remarked, of making the par- 
ticular writer a universal law of the entire past. A pretty 
dilemma truly for our historical adjudications, which re- 
duces them to alternate between the impossible and the 
absurd ! So that if the reader but consider the situation 
well, he will ask himself, not why history is so often wrong 
in its decisions, but how it can possibly be ever right, even 
by chance. He will hesitate to trust it for so much as the 
raw representation of facts — the infant province of the 
chronicler, and to which, it is worth observing, certain 
critics of the present day would have the range of history 
again degraded, in the ignorant hope of rescuing it from 
the monstrous condition in question. And the distrust 
would be entirely philosophical. For facts stand in need 
of theory to interpret and thus exhibit them aright, no less 



INTRODUCTION. 2-3 

than theory does of facts, in turn, for its ulterior verifica- 
tion. 

In conclusion, the principle, or rather absence of all 
principle upon which historical composition still proceeds 
is, we see, far more preposterous than if the materials 
were jumbled together in the double disregard of geogra- 
phy and chronology. These primitive bases of arrangement 
have indeed been termed the eyes of history ; although 
they would, I think, be better called its legs, and so were 
preceded by genealogy as the go-cart of its infancy. But 
admitting them to the rank of eyes, they would at best be 
but the physical organs. Whereas, that which gave them 
value, the perceiving power itself, sits sequestered in the 
intellect behind them. Now this is the visual faculty of 
history which is overlooked, and which consists in a scien- 
tific theory evolved by suitable methods. For what histo- 
rian, whether of an individual, an epoch, a nation or a 
race, has hitherto begun with providing this equitable 
standard of estimation ; with pre-adjusting this indispensa- 
ble point of view ; with couching these real eyes of all 
rational philosophy, physical and moral as well as social I 
I confess I do not know of one. 

§ 5. From the mischiefs of wanting, let us now glance" 
to the advantages of establishing, this great intellectual 
requisite. The direct and principal consequence of a 
theory of civilization would be to furnish to history a 
general scale of classification. This in turn would oblige 
and would enable the writers to begin by assigning the 
place, as the subject may be, of the proposed people in 
the general progression of society : or of the particular 
epoch, in the development of the nation ; or even of the 
individual in the civilization of his class and his country. 
The result of this would be to define, methodize, and 
abridge incalculably the author's task. Under its guid- 
ance there would be no fear that even a German pro- 
fessor would mix the letters of the alphabet with the laws 
of the stars. It would proportionably render competent 
the general reader too, both to comprehend the subject 
and criticise the execution. It would instruct us to judge 
of men, as antiquarians do of monuments, in the spirit of 
their situation and season ; not as we now do universally, 
.n flagrant violation of the first rule both of interpretation 
3* 



26 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

and equity. By this means, moreover, the exemplary 
characters of the past might be rescued alike from the 
obloquy and the adoration of ignorance, and turned pro- 
fitably to the edification of public conduct or the illustra- 
tion of human nature. This nature itself it would excul- 
pate from the inexplicable depravity of having hitherto, 
the world over, forsaken, with eyes open, or rather by 
deliberate preference, the paths of righteousness and 
reason, for the mire of vice and the mazes of error. It 
would vindicate, in fine, the Creator of that nature fi'om 
having imposed, or at least admitted, so diabolical a desti- 
nation. 

It seems needless to note the importance of such a 
scale of appreciation in the practical sphere of legislation, 
through all its tributary functions. But what it would 
effect for social science, may be exemplified with brevity 
in the subjects of botany or comparative anatomy. In the 
latter, it is well known, that a Cuvier may now determine, 
from a single joint, tooth, or other fragment of an animal, 
whose species had never entered human eye or imagina- 
tion, not only its general configuration, size, family, and 
grade in the series of organic being ; but also its physio- 
logical constitution, its manners, its food, its climatic 
habitation, whether in the geography or the chronology 
of the globe. Even so would equal knowledge (a thing, 
I doubt not, eventually attainable) of the analogous laws 
of symmetry and synergy in the social system, enable 
the historian to tell — not only from any simple art 
or institution, usage or general opinion of an extant 
community, but perhaps by inspection of a disinterred 
utensil or sculptured column of some unrecorded Nine- 
veh, — would enable, I say, to tell the entire social constitu- 
tion and intellectual condition of the corresponding peo- 
ple. All which would be implied in the short and simple 
formula — q^ fixing the place on tlie scale of civilization. 

But to construct this scientific scale — of which the 
theorem had long since been attempted by Vico, and quite 
recently established by Comte, who is the greater Newton, 
succeeding the great Kepler, of social and universal 
science ; to verify the abstract theory by a general induc- 
tion of human history, and verified, to apply it to the ex- 
planation of civilization (even as La Place explained the 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

physical counterpart by the law of gravitation) — this 
double task appears to be the grand achievement which 
time has kept in store for the positvie method of Francis 
Bacon and the mental manhood of the Nineteenth cen- 
tury. 

§ 6. That the author of this little volume makes no pre- 
tensions to a feat of such magnitude may be well believed, if 
but from the enormity of the contrast with his book. Rome, 
indeed, has been somewhat similarly surveyed in her rise 
and decline, within a compass considerably still more lim- 
ited. But the aggregate history of even the Roman people 
was no more than a morning's entry in the journal of travel- 
ling Humanity. And then the writer, in that instance, was 
Montesquieu. In truth, I have not ventured voluntarily in 
this pitiful bark, upon an ocean worse than shoreless, chart- 
less and unexplored ; an ocean agitated by conflicting cur- 
rents of a thousand traditions ; bestrewn with the submerg- 
ed sandbanks of innumerable systems ; above all infested, 
on the one hand, by the harpy prejudices of popular ignor- 
ance, and on the other, by the pirate pretensions of sancti- 
fied authority. I have been led into the slight excursion 
half unconsciously ; and have been conveyed into the open 
waters, with scarce an effort of my own, by the strong 
current of a tributary stream. But dropping metaphor, a 
short account of both the occasion and the route, while ex- 
cusing, I trust, the temerity of the undertaking, will also 
best extenuate the natural imperfections, and delineate the 
special character of the performance. 

The editor of a quarterly journal did me the honor 
of inviting an article in explanation of the mental charac- 
ter of Pascal — that prodigy and enigma, as he has been 
termed, of the species. Conformably to the theory above 
referred to, and long employed upon other projects, I 
sought a clue to the proposed problem in two principal 
sources ; — first, in the contemporary civilization of the 
country; and then, for the residual conditions of the solu- 
tion, I took the extreme, because antagonistic, phases of the 
epoch, as contrasted in the spirit of the Jesuits and Janse- 
nists, and thus concurring to elucidate the anomalies of 
Pascal. But to determine, or even to designate the psy- 
chological character of the age, it was necessary to assign 



28 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

its place in the evolution of the species ; for I know of no 
other criterion, real or even revealed. And again, how 
was this evolution itself to be graduated, without ascer- 
taining first its laws both of order and progression ? In this 
way (through the interconnection to be met among all 
things on descending into the roots) was I carried back- 
wards, step after step, to the few and fundamental ele- 
ments, not merely of the question immediately to be solved, 
but of all others, I dare affirm, wdthin the sphere of the 
human intellect. 

This done, the analytic proceedure of exploration was 
reversed into the synthetic order of exposition. The re- 
sult presented what seem.ed a satisfactory, almost a self- 
evident solution of Pascal — even in that most repugnant 
combination of superstition and science, which has made 
his name at once the scandal and the glory of philosophy. 
Another conclusion, and of vastly greater moment, was 
the establishment of the general principle, that every in- 
dividual, in proportion to his mental eminence, is an epi- 
tome of the age and a monogram of the species. The 
truth of this abstract deduction was practically reahzed, in 
finding it explain, as it proceeds, the principal aspects and 
revolutions of opinion and institution as recorded in his- 
tory. Among others were evolved, as most pertinent to 
the purpose, the successive forms of heathen mythology, 
and the various schools of ancient philosophy ; then under 
a succeeding phase of the same principles, the several 
sects of the Christian Church, and leading systems of 
modern inquiry along to the goal of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. Thus prepared, the thought occurred that the thing 
was capable of expansion into something like the former 
of the alleged requisites of our age, namely, a verification 
oftlie social theory hy a general induction oi History. 

In pursuance of this higher design I began the attempt 
anew, with prefixing a systematic exposition of principles. 
But on proceeding to the application upon a far more ex- 
tended scale, I found no place for a single sentence of the 
original sketch, with the exception of a page or two at the 
end of the volume. This I mention, to invoke indulgence to 
a production printed as it was first written, and first written 
(I almost blush to own it) within the space of two months. 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

I might even add the dog-days \vereincluded;(i) if only by 
way of accommodating the critics (should they honour 
me) with a clue to any thing cynical they may find in the 
work. The same gentlemen, it is possible, will avail them- 
selves of another avowal, declared in the dedication, con- 
cerning my want of books, and deem the circumstance a 
safe occasion to display their erudition. Not that the 
essay has not imperfections within the range of their un- 
prompted powers : had it been convenient to write it over, 
the matter would have probably gained, the manner un- 
doubtedly ; so that, as it is, there remains in both, no 
doubt, abundant flaws for the censors in view, who, like 
other vermin, have a natural predilection for the smaller 
chinks and crevices, as favoring the exertion of their little 
all offeree. But be it so, they can only leave me gainer 
by any serious attempts of the kind ; for they must serve 
to expose either my ignorance or their own. If mine, I 
shall be obliged to them for a lesson ; if haply their own, 
why, then for an ovation. 

But the meed of triumph, or the monition of failure, is 
with a different class of critics ; and above all with a jDublic 
intelligent, and independent, and placed in no professional 
dilemma of being either critical or nothing. With these, I 
doubt not the puerile tensilry of literary legerdemain — 
that surest mark of a bastard literature and a barren 
public intellect — will scarce be missed, amid the serious 
interest of an unprecedented exposition, professing to trace 
consecutively the footprints of the Human INIind, from the 
infancy of society up to its present point of civilitude, and 
to indicate its necessary direction and destination. Those 
who can the best appreciate the various exigencies of such 
a task, will be sure to treat this sketch with greatest 
leniency. Their ca7iclicl and intelligent criticism is, 
however, the sole favour I would ask or desire, and as a 
favour it would be taken, I beg to say, in all sincerity. 

(1) The work was written in July and August of the year before 
last. The delay of publication, though not of my choosing, has left 
an opportunity of verifying the chief historical representations. Also, 
of restating the preliminary portion, containing the theory. But the 
application I must leave unmodified in either statement or style ; and 
moreover, now disturbed, no doubt, in many detail*? of adjustment by 
this enlargement of the original scale. 



30 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOlsr. 

For I am quite sensible the thing at present is a mere 
anti-type or skeleton. But I also think the skeleton to 
possess a setting of frame and a vigour of ligament, which, 
with a more detailed adjustment of the minor tissues of 
the theory, and a new terminology to suit and set off the 
entire system, might be made to wield the flesh and fat of 
many a portly and pedantic folio. And it is' to test the 
truth of this conviction, that I preferably leave the book in 
this honest undress for the inspection of the public.(l) 

But enough of the execution and the author. I con- 
clude with a more particular description of the subject. 

§ 7. The metaphor o^ footprints, just employed, ex- 
plains the choice of the title vestiges; a name, moreover, 
applied already in quite a similar sense to a clever book 
upon the processes of the physical creation. But civiliza- 
tion, as 1 conceive it, is likewise a creation. It is the 
moral counterpart of the grand geological operation, to 
which the term is specifically appropriated. The latter is 
the natural history of our planet ; the former, the natural 
history of our species. The one event progresses by a trans- 
formation in the parts of matter; the other, by a variation 
in the views of men. The progression has been traced in 
the one through a stratification of earths ; it may be traced 
in the other through a stratification of opinions. In short, 
the things are not only analogous, but reciprocally depend- 
ant. The uncouth and half-formed animals of the earlier 
deposits are, to the physical conditions of the primeval 
globe, exactly what the comparatively cultivated earth of 
the present day is to the semi-rational creatures that are 
found accordingly to inhabit it. And the joint tendency 
of this twofold progress, geological and social, is, I may 

(1) My mind In this respect is expressed exactly in the following 
reflection of Nicole, himself the most polished writer of the polished 
Port Royalists: — " It were much to be desired tliat books should bere- 
g^arded in the first edition as no more than half-formed sketches, which 
the authors submit to the judgment of the intelligent public, and which 
afterwards, upon the various suggestions that might thus be received 
from different critics, they should elaborate all anew, in order to give 
them the degree of perfection to which the writers may be capable of 
carrying them." This was said, no doubt, in days when books were 
read and written by the intelligent alone, and read by these not as a 
novel or a newspaper. But it must be owned— ^ue nous avons 
changes tout cela. 



INTRODUCTION. 3 1 

add, to turn gradually the natal opposition (to be after- 
wards explained) between Nature and Man, into that in- 
tellectual harmony of the latter with the former, the 
realization of which in practice and the recognition in prin- 
ciple, have always described the limits of civilized en- 
closure, between the cultured Eden of art and truth and 
the cursed wilderness of vice and error. 

Such, at all events, will be my meaning of /7^e termCivi- 
lization, as enlarged to a strictly philosophical import. 
The name, however, — even though titular — is of little 
account, provided the reader bear in mind that the subject 
of these pages embraces and applies to all the arts and 
institutions, the truths and the errors, in one word, to all that 
is, or rather is deemed to be, non-physical, in the collec- 
tive career of mankind. We are, in fine, to sketch a me- 
moir of the great being called Humanity ; the veritable 
Leviathan which was conceived, but for abortion, by the 
foremost English thinker of the seventeenth century: 
although a French contemporary had characterized 'it, in 
the immortal terms of our motto^ as " living and learning 
indefinitely." 



GENERAL DIVISION 



OF 



THE SUBJECT 



§ 8. Of Civilization, as thus defined, the total evolu- 
tion presents three different phases, proceeds upon three 
distinct bases, is performed in three principal cycles, 
progressively. It operates, in the first, upon the physical 
Vv'orld of Nature ; next, upon the moral world of Man ; 
finally, upon the logical world of Relation — the relations 
subsisting really heiweeu those two collective substances. 

The condition of reality is essential to be noted. 
For relations are, of necessity, the spring of action in all 
the periods, nothing else being ever accessible to the 
human understanding. But these relations, as conceived 
in the first and second cycles, are respectively imaginary 
and imperfect ; and it is even through numberless ages of 
such illusions and such errors, that the human intellect has 
been educated to perceive the true, that is, the soientific. 

It should also be explained, that the term cycle is not 
taken here in the literal sense of meaning a period return- 
ing into itself. This would obviously be incompatible 
with the continuity of progression, of which the three sec 
tions are represented as the successive results. To follow 
nature, it is therefore necessary that the movement of 
revolution be not only reconciled with, but made subser- 
vient to, the movement of progression. Not the circle, 
then, but the cycloid gives the precise image of the accep- 
tation. 

Adopting the term, in this sense, as a generic title for 
4 



34 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

all three of the divisions, the distinctive epithets (of which 
the technical import appears more fully in the proper 
place) will be the words Mythological, Metaphysical, 
and Scientific. For description's sake, the Cycles will 
be also referred to occasionally by certain other series 
of corresponding terms ; such as, respectively, the Physi- 
cal, the Ethical, the Philosophical ; or the Objective, the 
Subjective, and the Systematic. 

This arrangement, I may be allowed to say, has some- 
thing still more to recommend it than being thus sponta- 
neously natural and methodically convenient. It is in 
fact a compound and necessary result, in the first place, of 
the logical Organization of the mind conceiving ; secondly, 
of the cosmical Order among the things to be conceived ; 
thirdly, of the consequent Modes of the conception. In 
more familiar terms, it flows, conjointly, from the Consti- 
tution of the human intellect, the Composition of the 
external world, and the natural Position of the one 
towards the other. The explanation of these three funda- 
mental factors of the problem will therefore demand a 
preliminary department of the work ; and together with 
one to each of the three cyclical divisions, will make, in 
all, the four Parts into which it is accordingly distributed. 



PART I. 

MECHANISM OF CIVILIZATION 



CHAPTER I. 



Logical and Chronological Analysis of the Human 
Mind. 

§ 9. I pray the reader of sense and taste not to take 
alarm at this ominous caption. There is no design to 
drug him with infinitesimal analyses, after the nearly 
defunct fashion of Scotch metaphysics. I shall not allow 
myself to fritter down the substantial unity of the mind 
into a multitude of elements calledyJz<?2^Z?^?>5; but which 
are truly nothing more than the various modes of a single 
power placed in certain diversities of condition and cir- 
cumstance. Take, for instance, one or two of the most 
specious, the "faculties" of imagination and of judgment. 

Imagination is but perception applied to things absent 
or unreal. But the mental act is no less the same because 
of the unreality of the object; nor is the sensorial impres- 
sion the less real because received from memory at second 
hand. As well should the eye by which a friend is per- 
ceived in person and in portrait be accounted a different 
organ. Thus identical with perception, in both the nature 
of the mental energy and the reality of the exciting im- 
pression — that is to say, in all that can be possibly thought 
to constitute a " faculty" — the alleged difference of im- 
agination, is extruded into the object. But even here 



36 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION^ . 

also there is really none. For the real presence or even 
existence of the object, in turn, is no more necessary to 
perception than it is allowable in imagination. Witness 
the visionary perceptions of dreaming or delirium. The 
contrary opinion is the extraneous result of association, 
propense in all things to concrete, so to speak, the invisible 
action with the tangible recipient, and especially where 
the occurrence of the latter is as here the common case. 
Were delirium the normal state, the prejudice had been 
the other way, and perception proper been what we now 
name imagination. No more therefore does the difference 
between these operations lie in the object, for this may be 
ideal in the former as well as in the latter. In what then 
does it consist % In the circumstance that imagination has 
a consciousness of the unreality. But this consciousness 
is hself a perception. So that imagination is, I repeat, 
but perception applied ; and I now add, applied to its own 
past operations. These names then both refer to one and 
the same faculty : even as a farmer is not a different per- 
son, or his bodily force a different faculty, when he gathers 
his harvest from the bosom of nature and when after- 
wards he draws it from the storehouse for use. 

But as imagination is thus perception introverted, and 
co-ordinating, however crudely, the record of memory ; 
so Memory itself, I may note in passing, is still the same 
perception, pursuing the simple lines of association. 

The identity of Judgment is equally evident. As 
memory is the perception of past impressions in lines ; 
and imagination the perception of the like impressions in 
groups, that is to say images; so Judgment is the percep- 
tion of past impressions in series, that is to say, of ab- 
stract relations ; or more properly, it is the re-application of 
such relations to facts. What evinces quite conclusively 
this essential unity of all three, and moreover suggests the 
occasion of their diversity, is this : They come predomi- 
nantly into action at successive stages of development both 
in individual and national life. Occurring out of this 
order, both of season and subordination, or rather seem- 
ing to so occur, they are remarked, even popularly, to be 
incompatible with one another : a large memory is said to 
be exclusive of a lively imagination, and both to be alike 
ominous of a weak judgment. Galen ascribed the pro^ 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. Bl 

verbial stupidity of the ass to the peculiar tenacity of its 
memory ; and the witty countrymen of the erudite Jesuit 
Hardouin have avenged, in an epitaph or rather epigram 
upon his tomb (1), a hke inversion of the successive order 
of predominance among these faculties. Within this 
order, on the other hand, they presuppose each other pro- 
gressively — the perception of exterior objects necessarily 
preceding that of their mnemonical impressions, and the 
consideration of these impressions in the casual and still 
half-sensuous combination of images, being an equally 
indispensable preparative to the comprehension of their 
natural laws. Now here is a set of characteristics any one 
of which, not to say the whole, I might challenge those 
concerned in the prevailing doctrines to reconcile with the 
hypothesis of a multitude of mental faculties, all equally 
elementary and mutually independent. Whereas, to one 
who can discern, amid all this play of powers, but a single 
substantive faculty under several modifications, the de- 
scriptions will appear to fit the explanation I contend for, 
as if they had been actually drawn from a set theory to 
that effect, instead of from the observation and instinct of 
nature. The " powers" exemplified are, therefore, but 
complications of the same faculty, to wit, a reflected, an 
imaged, an apjylicd Perception. 

Still more easily might I go on to resolve into the 
same element the residue of these pretended principles,, 
active, passive, and neuter. But such minuteness is the 
less necessary that our exposition of the true theory 
will dispose by implication of the entire catalogue of Dr. 
Reid. Meanwhile the conviction will be more complete, 
if to this exposure of the error, I annex a brief account 
of its origin and occasion. 

§ 10. In fact this mischievous morseling of the human 
mind proceeds from the vulgar illusion, that wherever 
there is an objective name there must be a substantive 
existence. This error will be seen in the sequel to have 
occasioned the most eccentric, or rather the most shock- 

(1) Hie jacet vlr heatcB memorice, expectar\s jiidicium. The felicity 
lies, it will be remarked, in the Latin ambiguity of each of the terms 
italicized ; which may signify either a " man of blessed memory" 
(of holy life) " awaiting the last judgment," or a man possessing a 
retentive memory, but wanting the power of judgment. 

4* 



38 VESTIGES OF CIYiLIZATION. 

ing of the modes of heathen worship. Even in our own 
divine religion, the monks of the middle ages are known 
to have drawn largely upon the terminology of the pagan 
liturgy, and transformed into so many Saints, historical 
and holy, not merely substantives, but even adjectives and 
sighing interjections, through their fortunate ignorance of 
the Latin language. This insatiable urgency to multiply, 
in the case of theology, the means of intercourse between 
Providence and piety, would, in the succeeding ages 
of metaphysics, produce a similar expedient to explain the 
analogously mysterious intercourse between matter and 
mind. This taking of words for things was, accordingly, 
the general error of all Greek speculation even in the 
department of physics. It arrived in the darker district 
of mental and moral inquiry, towards the close of the last 
century, in Britain ; when it was represented by a dynasty 
of minute philosophers, who finding the words memory^ 
imagination, reason, conscience, and a score or two of 
other variations in use, proceeded — with an ignorance of 
the laws of general language quite analogous to that of 
their clerical predecessors in respect of the Latin vocabu- 
lary — to metamorphose them into a crowd of entities 
called "faculties," and then protected this metaphysical 
thimble-rig by an electioneering appeal to the j9?-mc'//??e 
of " common sense," and the ijhilosojjhy of " facts !" The 
whole very much as the personal symbolism of the good 
monks has been also consecrated to ignorance, by the 
equally logical arguments, of unbroken tradition and an 
infalhble Church. 

Hobbes used to say that words are the counters of 
wise men, but the money of fools. It seems, however, 
they may pass for specie upon philosophers too. But to 
be just to Hobbes, he never said that all philosophers are 
wise men, or that most of those so called have not been 
fools. 

§ 11. The same general objection would apply to the 
still later and now the prevailing system of " mental phi- 
losophy" named phrenology. This, in fact, is but a trans- 
formation of the " entities" into " organs." It is another 
remarkable coincidence with the verbal illusion, that as the 
latter was seen to reign in the physical metaphysics of the 
Greeks long anterior to its appearance in the mental meta- 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIXD. 39 

physics of the moderns ; so the organic diversity attributed 
to the brain had been in some shape a medical doctrine 
in the Roman School of Galen, before its revival as a 
mental theory by Gall in our own day. Phrenology is, 
then, an advance upon its more frivolous predecessor, 
however erroneous or imperfect itself. It has brought 
the error from out the impalpable region of revery. and 
placed it on the terra firma of positive philosophy, where 
it may be better combatted with popular evidence. Such 
are the historical import and real value of cranioscopy. 
And in this light it should be regarded as an importan 
auxiliary, a leading pioneer to the science of Mind. But 
in no light, as that science itself Still less can it even 
pretend to be the science of Society; for it terminates in 
the destinies of the individual. 

Conceive an Indian, fresh from the forest, to be 
introduced into a large corn-mill at work. He sees a 
vast conglomeration of machinery disposed into several 
masses, and without visible interconnection. Aj^pioaching 
nearer, he discerns in each a new complication of arrange- 
ments, the mutual dependence of which he is unable to 
trace beyond the portions in immediate contact. He next 
ascends from loft to loft where the insulation seems still 
more complete, the diversity more multiplex. What at 
last would be his general impression ? Most probably, 
that he sees before him a multitude of strange animals — 
or (remarking the mill-pond in the rear) perhaps a beaver- 
dam of manitoos — all occupied in doing something, 
and each, the savage would be sure to suppose, on 
its own account alone. But what is this something ? 
Composing his astonished attention to the single inqui- 
ry, he observes to issue from one department of the 
machinery, the product called grist, from another bran, 
from a third brown sharps, on a lower story, the fairer and 
softer substance of flour, &c. These products, all, he re- 
gards as co-ordinate in the design of the operation, or rather 
as the proper business of the respective and independent 
operators. For such parts of the works as exhibit no 
direct result of their movements, he finds a ready expla- 
nation in the mysteries of his own ignorance. The pit- 
wheel, for example, with its dismal position and primal 
power, will surely be the abode of the master manitoo, 



40 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the Great Spirit ; and the shaft, immovable and upright 
amid the turmoil of the scene, will encase the soul of 
some erect and impassive chieftain of his tribe. 

These animals or divinities of the savage are the 
" faculties," or intellectual powers of the metaphysician; 
while this child of nature is the prototype of that manipu- 
lator of bumps who dubs himself "practical phrenologist." 
With the exception, however, that the latter transfers 
the part of children to those who believe in, and pay 
for, his quackeries. 

Let, on the other hand, a skilful mechanic be brought 
to take a survey, without previous experience, of the 
same spectacle. He recognizes the whole fabric as form- 
ing but a single system, a single instrument, a single 
organism, only composed of a congeries of parts more or 
less close and co-operative. The action of such an instru- 
ment must, he comprehends, be collectively one, and ad- 
dressed to one ultimate effect. The varieties of produc- 
tion he discerns to be, all, but either incidents to the main 
operation or stages of its jjrogrcssion. The sole appurte- 
nant of the system which he can consider at all extraneous, 
will be the propelling power. About this, supposing it 
steam, the mechanic would probably hesitate. He tran- 
scended the savage in conceiving the unity of the ma- 
chinery in space ; but he may fail himself, in turn, to fol- 
low it backward into time. If native of a country where 
mills are worked by streams, he will think there runs be- 
neath a hidden current ; or he will look aloft for sails, if 
such be the usage of his nation; or he may assume a pro- 
portionate combination of muscular force, if we may sup- 
pose him from a rude region where the quairn alone is 
known. But when shown his mistake, and that the motive 
power is heat, he will deem the whole contrivance a new 
kind of mill; as he would equally rank the others as 
each an independent instrument, or different faculty, for 
grinding corn. And this conception he might vindicate 
by reference to language, which offers the distinct names 
of hand-mill, wind-mill, water-mill; thus evincing that 
these various structures are really different kinds of mill, 
according to the consent and common sense of mankind. 

These divers sorts of mill are the several " organs" of 
the cranioscopist ; and our practical mechanic an analogi- 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 41 

cal sample of the more comprehensive teachers of phre- 
nology. 

But the defects of his practicallsm would be corrected 
by the philosopher ; who not only sees that the mass of 
machinery before him is a single organ, but moreover that 
it is a cumulation of all the preceding modes of mill. He 
names it, then, a cor?i-mi\]f which applies accordingly to 
all alike. The diversities of appellation he readily ex- 
plains by referring to the obvious fact, that the rude 
inventors of language were better fitted to be impressed 
by the organic modifications of the material causes, particu- 
larly when presented them at long intervals in space and 
time, than with the generic end and abstract notion of the 
constant function. This fundamental purpose and even 
its immediate apparatus he shows to have, in fact, remained 
the same in all the stages, namely, the trituration of corn 
between two stones. The accident of the moving force 
alone has changed essentially, having passed from the arm 
of the savage to that of the steam-engine. This passage 
the inductive philosopher will trace, with the progress of 
civilization, through the three elements, successively, of 
water, wind, and fire. And these, too, in fine he may 
show to be complications of one another, and to consist, 
throughout, in the same agency of a continuous and elas- 
tic force, in three progressive grades of rarefaction. 

Even so would the real science of the mind, like that 
of the mill, teach us to find in the several compartments 
of the brain but the synergical portions of a single com- 
plex organ ; performing an ultimately simple though in- 
cidentally varied function ; but performing it upon differ- 
ent principles, actuated by different views, according to 
the grade of development of the individual, the age or 
the race. This sole function is, again, perception. But 
what the impelling principles we shall presently investi- 
gate. 

§ 12. Meanwhile this perception itself demands de- 
composition in turn. The term, as usually accepted, im- 
plies a co-operation of the senses with the intelligence. 
But, as intimated in the penultimate section, the acts im- 
plied are quite distinct. They are even independent. The 
mental part of perception may be operated, as in dreaming, 
without a corresponding action of the sensuous organs ; 



42 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOK". 

and the latter are known, on tlie other hand, even to dictate 
movements of the body in sleep, without the concurrence or 
cognizance of the intellect. The former and purely percep- 
tive act has, in popular language, no proper appellation, un- 
less it be the word thought in its most general sense ; but is 
called partitively the feeling faculty, the imagining faculty, 
the judging faculty, &c. ; even as the act or instrument of 
grinding corn had been named hand-mill, water-mill, wind- 
mill, &c,, but never corn-miW until it came into the hands 
of science ; and for the same reason in both the cases, 
namely the generic unity of the function. The merely 
mechanical operation of sense is the province of seaisation. 
Still there lurks in even sensation a species of percejDtion 
— the " ultima species " — to wit, perception of impression 
present; as memory and the others cited, are, we said, per- 
ception of impression fast ; and as reasoning and other 
processes are, we shall see, perceptions of impressions to 
come. And this rudimentary stage is also furnished, 
quite accordingly, with the special name of feeling or 
consciousness. Beyond this, I apprehend no merely men- 
tal analysis will ever penetrate. 

But the subject matter of Sensation — whether in the 
exterior form of Impression or in the internal one called 
Emotion — belongs appropriately to the sphere of physi- 
ology. It is simply the ground, the substrate upon which 
the operations of intellect proceed, and is thus completely 
extrinsic to their essence. 

§ 13. There remains, then, to compose this essence, 
but the merely mental part of perception ; and to this I 
assert the common privilege of restricting the name, having 
complied, I trust, with the conditions of definition and ex- 
planation. 

Perception, therefore, in this sense, of sole intellectual 
faculty, is, so to speak, the monad of INIind, and conse- 
quently the common denominator of civilization. Like 
its physical co-efFicient, Impression, it is one essentially 
throughout, in the complex form of a theory as in the 
simple meaning of a term ; it is always perception, and 
perception always of relation. How a theory may be the 
direct object of an act of perception will be understood if 
we remember, that the Omniscience of the Creator is 
supposed to so j^^rccivc the whole system of the Universe, 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 43 

that is, to apprehend it at a glance. But of all knowledge 
however limited, if only thorough, that is scientific, such is 
also the aim and the effect. The sole difference in point 
of principle is perhaps this : that boundless intelligence 
would probably perceive the world of matter and of mind 
to be both evolved from a single ultimate element ; 
whereas human nature, by its constitution, has been sent 
upon this scene, under the " Caudine fork" above encoun- 
tered by our analysis, and human knowledge thus confined 
within the dualism there disclosed — of intellect and ob- 
ject, Perception and Relation. But onward and out- 
ward, that is to say, throughout the human range of Per- 
ception, the difference is all of modification, of degree. 

§ 14. The conclusion thus reached inductively may be 
confirmed by deduction. For this gradation of percep- 
tion, from sensation up to science, is the joint effect, and 
so a proof, of the mind's simplicity, as just described, put 
in conflict with the complexity of natural relations. This 
complexity, which belongs, in fact, to the succeeding 
chapter, it is not necessary here to discuss. Tt will suffice 
to distinguish that the relations bear a twofold aspect, 
namely, absolute and relative, cosmical and personal, as 
they are or appear in Nature, and as they are or appear 
in Knowledge. But it is with the latter and accidental 
aspect that the present purpose is alone concerned, and 
with that as merely subsidiary to the proposed explica- 
tion. To the same end it may be well to add, that the 
joint effect to be characterized was not more necessarily a 
gradation in fact than it was a complication in form. For 
the mind, as it cannot change directly the constitution of 
nature to suit the singleness and simplicity of its own ca- 
pacity, is forced to operate indirectly, by taking the alter- 
native of Mahomet and putting itself m motion, in modifi- 
cation. And as the Prophet gained the mountain, we 
may presume, like mere mortals, by a complication of 
physical processes in his own body, together with the fric- 
tion and support of the earth ; so Perception is gradually 
elevated to wider ranges of comprehension by training its 
logical processes, from their feeble origin in the soil of 
sense, up the trellis, so to speak, of natural relations ; in 
literal language, by simply reduplicating its own action 



44 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

progressively. We are briefly to trace the course and 
test the results of this procedure. 

A general and necessary consequence of the unity of 
faculty would be this : that all relations must present 
themselves at first as merely subjective, that is to say, as if 
they centred in the percipient as sole term ; and must 
pass, by the progress of knowledge, through the several 
successive phases called qualities, objects, relations proper, 
laws. In fact, Perception, in its infant essays, the relation 
being presented endwise, could receive but a dim, indefi- 
nite impression ; even as a physical line, i:)laced in a like 
position in the axis of the eye, is found to dwindle to the 
semblance of a point upon its surface. Such, accordingly, 
is the exact character of the primary process of mind, 
above distinguished as consciousness, but more commonly 
named sensation. So long and far as succeeding sensa- 
tions were all different from each other, the effect would 
continue the same, the perceptions must be mere con- 
sciousness ; there being no objective connection between 
the crowd of mental points whereby the intellect might 
be awakened from its optical illusion. But as soon as the 
like relation, the like impression, should recur elsewhere, 
the situation would thenceforth be changed ; the indentity, 
or the resemblance, which is a mode of identity, would be 
led, by the local variance, to recall the former sensation, 
and thus reveal the interjacent relation of place. This re- 
perception of sensations under the category of space is 
the second stage of the process, and the pretended faculty 
\.Q,xx^Q^ memory [V). The progressive effect of memory 
was to break the illusion of mere sensation, by separating 
the subjective term from the objective : the exhibition of 
the same impression as occurring at distant intervals im- 
pliecl, of course, its absence from the mind in the mean 
time, and thus excluded the previous prejudice of its per- 
sonal inherence. But where, then, did the mysterious 
visitor reside? Inevitably in something without. And 
this something Perception was enabled gradually to assign, 
by only shifting its point of view, from like sensation to 
sensation, along the double plain of memory, through 
space and time ; for by this alternation of position it re- 

(1) Hence the leading importance of the relations of place in the 
schemes of artificial memory. 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND, 45 

ceived the bearings of the several impressions, which, 
viewed obliquely, were seen to open from passive feelings 
into active qualities, and to recede into exterior centres of 
inhesion, thence called substances. The perception of those 
constantly recurring impressions or qualities, under real or 
fancied forms, over physical nature and mythical history, 
is the process which we quite accordingly denominate 
iinagination. In a word, memory gives sides to sensation, 
and imagination adjusts them into figures. And this com- 
pound process, led by resemblance, that is ^^y formal 
unity, went on to unify, to simplify these particular group- 
ings, by embracing them within this trigonometrical expe- 
dient of Perception, by aggregating them upon the sides 
of this triangular nucleus of human Knowledge, upon the 
distant, the past, the present or personal ; until all things 
seemed consolidated in the supreme image called the 
cosmos. 

2. But this imaginative and infant structure came in 
time to crumble at the base. The disparates of sensation, 
which we saw originally left out of account, and which 
were afterwards included, as well as similar diversities of 
object, amid the loose texture of resemblances or arche- 
types, became more manifest and multiplied with the pro- 
gress of experience. Perception, to compose the discord, 
must therefore turn to review its work, and recur for a new 
clue to the percipient himself. This self-direction of the 
faculty, from the sphere of Resemblance to the sphere of 
Difference, and from the plain of Space into that of Time, 
is the process which popular language has picturesquely 
named reflection. Then, the result of reflection is atten- 
tion to the differing attributes ; and to apprehend them in 
this separate state, is the mode of Perception named ab- 
straction. But as all things are both similar and different 
in some particular, the latter principle must, of course, 
conduct to ultimate unity, like the former ; its advance 
upon it would be this: that, while assimilation proceeded 
to unity, along the surface of external qualities, discrimi- 
nation must take the internal and occult route of causa- 
tion. And the reason of this step is clear ; for resemblance, 
being in its nature positive, appeared to be plain of itself, 
or accounted for by the constancy of combination called 
its form ,• whereas difference, being privative, provoked 
6 



46 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the notit)n of an agent, and so gave origin to curiosity, 
and occasion to incjuiry. Add to which the concurrent cir- 
cumstance that the elements found refractory were natu- 
rally the phenomena of motion or change. And thus the 
result v/as the resolution of the previous world of images 
into the more fundamental, but still fictitious scheme of 
entities supposed to generate them. Perception, in this 
metaphysical marshalling of abstracted relations, is accord- 
ingly the process Xei'meA generalization — a term preserv- 
ing (like most others, if we only know how to read the 
record) the true historical conception of the thing. 

3. Again, these genera or causes, to be serviceable to 
comprehension, must be fitted on to the now chaotic reali- 
ties around ; the resolution must be followed by recompo- 
sition. This final revolution has, like each of the preced- 
ing, commenced with attaching particular unities to more 
general. The distinction is, that while the objects attached 
were, in the former period, both similar, and in the second, 
both different exclusively ; the present mode of general- 
ization must be a compound of the two ; must connect 
similar things with different, reconcile essence with ap- 
pearance, harmonize order with progression, unite state 
with change. This is accomplished by the happy artifice, 
or to speak more truly, the hard necessity, of dropping 
gradually the plural element of" essential forms" and " effi- 
.cient causes," to attend but to the single notion of inter- 
f onsequent facts or effects, under their double but con- 
'Cordant evolution in Space and Time. This grand effort 
tDf Perception is the so-called faculty of reason. The 
oi^eration, as just described, will be best recognized in the 
syllogism, which seeks accordingly to ford the gulf be- 
tween resemblance and difference by the interposition, the 
evolution of what is called the " middle term." And here, 
again, as throughout its whole history, the imbecility of 
the human intellect is found to turn, in the hands of na- 
ture, to the account of its real advancement : for while 
relation, in the stage of images, seemed to rest upon one 
term, and in the epoch of causation upon two ; the inser- 
tion here of a mediate resting-point results in offering to 
perception the duplication or continuation of the line of 
constant Uniformity, which is the element and gives the 
idea of a natural law. Perception .in the act of applying 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 47 

these uniformities to phenomena, is the familiar process 
o{ comijarison. The recognition, in fine, of the several 
classes or indefinite lines of relation, as derivable de- 
ductively from a fundamental law and conformable to 
the order and operation of nature, is that culminat- 
ing complication of the perceptive faculty termed mc- 
tliod. For by this the obstruction or illusion is eliminated 
completely; the mind is brought about to the central 
point of view from which all parts of the group of 
objects or grade of relations — including, of course, as 
participator, the percipient himself — are equally made 
objective and evident at once. Thus, for instance, in 
the mathematical class of relations, after grouping up- 
wards for countless ages, from step to step of the preced- 
ing progression, the human mind attained at last, in the 
intellect of Isaac Newton, this central position in the sun, 
from which his Perception saw and solved the mechanism 
of our Universe. (1) 

The course, spontaneous and necessary, of this psycholo- 
gical deduction, has thus led us, step by step, to the follow- 
ing familiar vestiges ; which it may be well to juxtapose 
under the three divisions of the whole development. Per- 
ception, then, passes progressively, and in consequence of 
the constant effort to simplify the phenomenal world into 
harmony with its own unity, through, 

1st (series), Sensation : Memory : Imagination : 
2d " Reflection : Abstraction : Generalization : 
3d " Reasoning: Comparison: Method. 
The consecutiveness and characterization, general and 
special, of these several terms, might have been traced 
with more precision, if greater nicety were necessary, 
or there was not danger of being thought inconsistent, by 
a certain class of readers, who mistake all logical refine- 
ment for the metaphysics I had just repugned. But our 

(1) TliG intuition was hardly consummated in the mind of Newton 
himself, whom the occult causes of the previous epoch had still ad- 
hered to in the shape of an " ether," and distracted from the steady 
contemplation of the bare phenomena. Not, however, that there 
may not be, and is not, quite probably, a higher form of atmospheric 
attenuation than ours. But that was effectually nothinjr to the 
purpose of Newton— except to elude a Cartesian fallacy vvhich he 
could not answer, and for the same reason. 



48 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOB". 

l^uipose was, beside, content with ascertaining on the most 
summary scale, their respective functions, their number 
and succession ; and a glance along the diagram must now 
satisfy in these particulars. It will be hard, for example, 
to designate a process or " power"' of mind, not included, 
at least as circumstance or application of one of these. 
For instance, ivill is but the entity supposed to operate 
Reflection ; reason, a like fantastic symbol of the process 
of that name ; j?wr7^me?^^ but Abstraction re-concreted to 
an individual object ; and so, with many others, as may be 
tested without great sagacity. And, moreover, it is to be 
observed, in reference to the completeness of the enume- 
ration, that the sole psychological phenomena with which 
I am here concerned, are the purely mental ; these being 
the leading, if not only, elements of the movement of civi- 
lization. As to the order, it may be tested by suppressing 
any of the mediate stages, and trying to show how the 
human intellect could have overpassed the gulf Each 
term will, in fact, be found to presuppose the preceding, 
and be itself included in each and all the following. Of 
this I will cite a single, but very signal illustration. 

It is known that Gall assigned, in the earlier of his cra- 
nioscopical maps, a separate organ to the so-called faculty 
of memory. But he afterwards remarked himself, as he 
might have read in all medical writers, that in cases of 
inflammation or lesion of the brain, the power of remem- 
brance is never, or but rarely, lost entire ; the suspension 
being limited variously, now to proper names, now to 
substantives, again to abstract ideas, sometimes to figures, 
and occasionally to sciences. Now if the record of 
memory could be obliterated thus piecemeal, according as 
this or that of the other supposed organs was impair- 
ed, it was clear the power could not keep its place in an 
individual organ. And what then 1 The alternative was 
in the teeth of the theory of Gall. He, however, quieted 
the aberration after the manner of the ancient astrono- 
mers, by attaching an epi-organ to each of the other 
bumps, a sort of mnemonical knapsack, containing its men- 
tal ammunition, and which naturally became powerless 
when the bearer should be stricken down. But as the epi- 
cycles disappeared as soon as the motion of their princi- 
pals was found to be not simple but composite ; so the 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 49 

present theory of the human intellect explains the partial 
destruction of memory, by showing this function to be 
compounded with each and all the superior Processes, or 
more properly the latter to be complications of Memory, 
but appropriated to these progressively larger views of the 
external world, which occasioned the modifications and 
evolved the development. Thus, for example, must a 
suspension of the process of Imagination produce the 
specific oblivion of names substantive ; of Abstraction, that 
of general terms ; of Reasoning, that of the inferential 
results of the process, &c. ; and this while Memory proper 
remained quite unimpaired in its primary domain of Sen- 
sation. On the other hand, this fundamental link may 
itself be struck away, and yet the rest of the severed 
chain continue temporarily operative, in virtue of its 
points of attachment to the trellis above alluded to ; whence 
the several component Processes draw still that secondary 
sustenance, which leaves PercejDtion in the integral state, 
to attend in person (so to speak) the particular stage, and 
be upheld by the co-operation, latent but living, of all the 
others (as far of course as developed) along the intellec- 
tual column. In fact the failure of memory in this last 
and lowest stage, is the true cause, or rather the definition 
of one of the most marked of the modes of insanity. Nor is 
this eflScacy of the new principle confined to Memory 
alone, but tends, of course, to each of the other Processes 
in due order ; which had doubtless all been observed by 
Gall and his fellow-physicians to be alike partitive, were it 
not for the double obstacle, that in ascending the percep- 
tional scale, there was offkred by each term at once a 
progressive diminution of the residual range of variation^ 
and a proportionate increase of ahstractness in the cor- 
responding grade of phenomena ; whereas, per contra, 
the observation was rendered also doubly obvious by the 
fundamental position and distributive province which 
makes memory what Lord Bacon would style, the sylva 
of the mind. In fine, the law, if followed up, would be 
found, I think, to furnish both a collective refutation of the 
various theories of mental pathology, and an explanation 
comi3lete and consistent of all the facts of the subject, so 
^ar as the meagre mysticism of the current speculations 
•lave allowed them, to be recorded with scientific fidelity. 
5* 



50 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

But as applications scarce less interesting beset my pen 
at almost every page, I must on this occasion, resolutely 
reserve my narrow space for the general explication of 
society. To so great an end, it vi^ill be proper to leave 
this intellectual law, of a progressive development from 
unity as unquestionable as possible, even in advance of 
its historical verification in the sequel For this reason, 
although the foregoing proofs seem to reach mathematical 
conclusiveness, I shall add a few coincidences for curiosity 
if not confirmation. 

Reverting to the diagram it will, in the first place, be 
observed that the gradation there assigned presents ano- 
ther profound correspondence with the commonly recog- 
nized scale of all animal intelligence. The brute creation 
are, in common with the infancy of men and of nations, con- 
fined within the range of the first Series; Reflection being 
usually regarded as the differentia of the human species. 
Alono- the second and middle division, lie at present, at 
various intervals, the most civilized communities of the 
race. I do not forget that man has arrogated the initial 
Process of the third Series as a universal criterion of his 
kind. But although, looking to capability, men in gene- 
ral may be called " rational," they can as yet scarce claim 
the clmvacter of reaso7ii72g creatures; unless, indeed, we 
reverse the test, and take for a ruling principle the rare 
exceptions. For hitherto the vast multitude have, it must 
be owned, been defined more fitly either as " featherless 
bipeds," or " animals that cook their food," or " creatures 
that make bargains," the latter being, we see, the very man 
of our enlio-htened nineteenth century. As to the final stage 
of Method I have no hesitation in affirming that the books 
themselves upon the subject, not to mention their general 
readers, do not, up to this day, employ consistently the 
mere term, or seem to understand the thing as it has been 
above distinguished from some or all of the antecedent 
grades of thought. But to pass a moment to lighter 
and less invidious illustrations; could the reader have 
well imagined, in our nine Processes of Perception, the 
nine Priestesses of Apollo, the daughters, he knows, of 
memory, sensatioji being no doubt, the sire, as well as 
the divinity they served, the god of Knowledge ? Or the 
nine Parts of Speech, as they are termed by the gramma- 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 51 

rians 1 Yet these and a thousand other facts, symboHcal 
and literal, are rudimentary manifestations of the nine 
modes of perception. But the most convincing case of 
all, perhaps, is the circumstance that popular language 
should have thus distinguished and denominated these 
elementary forms of thought, in precise though sponta- 
neous, accord with our deduction. 

Both a priori and historically, the conclusion is, there- 
fore, clear, that the so-called mental faculties are merely 
Processes of Perception, complications of the sole faculty 
or function we name mind; just as the organs of the 
phrenologists are but mere material parts, and even the 
so-called convolutions, which are really organic and per- 
haps correlative, but certain dispositions of one and the 
same nervous tissue, in its physical instrument, the brain. 

§ 15. But as the brain, in the human subject, is found 
divided into three compartments, proceeding serially from 
one another, and connecting all with the spinal trunk ; so 
does our aggregate of functional processes exhibit three 
cycles or series, progressive in march, and revolutionary 
in movement ; each series being appropriated to a spe- 
culative circuit (so to ' speak) of nature, but moving, 
respectively, upon Images, Essences, Effects ; or in more 
learned phrase, upon phenomena, noumena, and the re- 
lations between them (which, however, Kant, as a mere 
metaphysician, duly failed to recognize) : or in more solid 
and scientific language, upon the Statics, the Dynamics, 
and the science of the system. Might it be that those 
three progressive triads of Perception give the explana- 
tion so long sought by anatomists, of the three successive 
lobes of the brain, and which the phrenologists, led in this 
case by the manifest analogy, for once appropriated cor- 
rectly, though quite empirically ; for their three regions of 
tlie Sensuous appetites, Moral sentiments, and Intellectual 
faculties, are characterized exactly in the leading terms of 
my three series, namely. Sensation, Reflection, Reason- 
ing ? Might it be that the three membranes which en- 
velope the whole mass, relate in origin, if not end, to its 
three successive formations ? Would not such a notion 
seem countenanced by the well-known fact, that the skull 
itself exhibits three distinct and dissimilar layers of bone ; 
even as the scales of the crocodile, the shell of the crusta- 



52 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

ccan, nay, the interior of the tree, are seen to register in 
their laminations successive epochs of enlargement. (1) 
The convolutions also, — which are not coilings, be it 
marked, but platings, that is triangular (§ 16) indentations, 
and which are found in each of the three lobes, but of 
diminishing depth — might they too not, as above suggest- 
ed, be the real organs of the mental Processes; especially 
since, in avowed ratio to the manifestations of intelligence, 
they recede both in number and calibre, down the scale 
of animal life, until in the lower vertebrates they disappear 
entirely, at least from human ken 1 Is there absurdity in 
conceiving that the trigonometrical surveys by which alone 
we saw Perception could compass the notion of Relation, 
might be somehow executed, through the contraposition of 
the two sides of the nervous convolutes ; which, conjoin- 
ing in an inclosed angle, may be the organic data for infer- 
ring, as in geometry, the opposite, the objective line ? 

On such supposition the line of relation having to 
pass, we saw, through all the Processes, both cyclical and 
secondary, to be elongated into a natural law, this last 
perception would require a convolute pervading the entire 
brain, both the lobular departments, and the special con- 
volutions. Accordingly we find the whole divided, and 
to a depth proportioned to the supreme eftbrt, by a longi- 
tudinal cleft, into the two counterparts termed hemis- 
pheres. INIay not the corresponding and continuous sides 
of this so called scythe-formed furrow, be the means of 
generalizhig the special Processes of the constituent parts, 
into the indefinite uniformity of relation named a law ? 
And is not the aflirmative supported by the cardinal fact, 
that the laws of nature being more or less general in pro- 
portion to the phenomena to w^hicli they respectively re- 
late, proceed from the more or less posterior lines of the 
cerebral mass — from the physical, the moral, or the intel- 
lectual — and Perception had thus to traverse, as it were, 
a lesser section of the route ? Could relation general or 
individual be ever apprehended objectively, without this 
duplicate apparatus to perceive its terms or abutments both 
at once, and the tranverse line itself) has it not been organ- 

(1) Why not (a fortiori even) the integuments of the brain be of 
such sijrnifioance, seeing that those of the body orenerally are now 
made by the lirst naturalists the criteria of animal classification ? 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 53 

ized materially in the mode of corineclion between the 
two hemispheres at the base of the brain — which is not, 
it is well known, by a continuous and homogeneous mass, 
but by a series of ** commissures" or linear channels of com- 
munication ? May not this have given instinctive origin to 
the popular meta[)hor of mental obliquity ; which would 
thus be but a literal expression of the deviations from 
exact symmetry found occasionally in the hemispheres of 
the brain 1 Is there a process above mere sensation — 
even memory, judgment, or other mode of comparison — 
l^ossible in the entire absence of this second brain, with 
its attendant set of sensuous organs ? Does not its pres- 
ence cease accordingly at the exact point in the chain of 
being where the act of choosing is observed to exist no 
longer or to be necessary ? In the organs of motion, 
where the duplexity is much more general, the arrange- 
ment is seen to be mechanically indispensable in practice; 
is there any reason (other than the difference of palphbility 
between the processes) for not deeming it equally neces- 
sary in the instrument of perception ; of which the office 
is to guide that practice among broader relational combi- 
nations ? And if all or some of these conjectures are in 
any degree founded, do they not furnish a solution to 
that other standing problem, respecting this cyclical dual- 
ism of the higher animal creation ? For anatomists, 
phrenologists, and other mongers in " final causes" can 
devise, I believe, to this day, no other use for the second 
system than to serve as a prudent reserve against accident 
to its fellow ; as they see nothing in the convolutions, but 
the "convenience of packing!" I leave both explana- 
tions to those who have passed the puerile prejudice of 
travestying, into the peddling and purblind projects of 
man, the grand economy or operations of nature. Of one 
thing alone I am confident — that these operations are the 
true interpreters of the various organic structures through 
which they are performed ; for the function produces or 
at ]c^si pro7notes the organ, the organ on\-y practices the 
function. But the foregoing instance of the axiom is sub- 
mitted as a mere conjecture. My ac(|uaintance is not 
familiar with the minuter anatomy of the brain, the con- 
stant number, the figure, the relative bearings of the con- 
volutions ; and I have no present means of information, 



54 Vestiges of civilization-. 

authovitativo or experimental. Under these circumstances 
I liavc liere liazarded the suggestions at all, upon a prin- 
ciple which shall govern me throughout these pages, 
namely, that no doctrine shall be censured (as cranios- 
cojiy had been above), without indicating some of the 
grounds of condemnation. Ifj however, they should prove 
in this case valid, it would add a new demonstration to the 
preceding exposition of the mind. But the exposition, be 
they valid or not, keeps its more direct and essential basis 
upon the functional anatomy of Perception, and appeals 
for its triple triad of Processes, under a single triad of Prin- 
ciples, to the infinitely more various tests of historical con- 
firmation. Well, these three series of Perception, or cir- 
cuits of speculation, or Principles of Conception (as I 
will presently explain them), present already the three 
Cycles of human civilization, and accordingly the three 
divisions of this essay. 

As, however, this grand law is thus the foundation of the 
whole work, I cannot proceed without submitting it to a 
cursory confrontation with some of the broadest and best- 
known facts, drawn from the most divergent departments of 
experience, opinion and science. For if it can be shaken 
in a single essential, I would myself be the first to renounce, 
as no better than its predecessors, the entire superstructure, 
and take refuge in one or other of its two alternatives and 
antecedents, t^ie skepticism of intellectual chaos, or the 
mental opiate of theology. 

§ 16. To begin with science, and in its utmost extent 
of mathematical necessity, we know the triangle, which is 
the physical image of each of our triads of Perception, is 
accordingly the most simple and primordial of all figures ; 
and also that, as was shown concerning the primary mental 
Processes, it consequently involves the elements, includes 
the evidence of all : in other words, that all are but compli- 
cations of the triangle. Thus the circle, styled the most 
perfect, is but the triangle revolved upon its apex. The 
cube, an alternate juxtaposition of triangles. But as 
this is the figure requisite to the complete measurement 
of all bodies, so is it in fact the simplest expression of the 
supreme triad of Perception ; for of this we have seen the 
three Series to be progressive schemes for (so to say) 
measuring nature j the first taking her in surface, the 



ANALYSIS Of the human mInd. 55 

second in section, the third alone in solid or plan, which 
is thus the consummation called science. The same une- 
quivocal testimony is borne practically by the curious fact, 
that Plato could conceive his deity — who was the ideal of 
supreme Mind — capable of brhiging creation out of chaos 
but by such a series of triangles. And very probably 
Moses too, would have revealed us the same process, had 
he been as good a mathematician as Plato. These " three 
magnitudes" of matter belong more properly, then, to 
thought. They are the fabled footstool through which 
the intellect derives its general inspiration, as was sym- 
bolized in the oracular "tripod" of the Greek god of phi- 
losophy. 

I pass, however, for more familiar if not more intel- 
ligible examples, into the domain of popular cognizance, 
individual and historical. 

1. It is then of common observation and easy discern- 
ment, that the mental history, like the bodily growth of 
every duly matured man, exhibits three different states of 
existence progressively. The earliest and infant state is 
marked by the attributes of Animal life : the predomi- 
nance of the self-preservative appetites ; the absence of 
all the mental powers, save sensation, memory and im- 
agination ; the presence of none of the sentiments called 
moral, except fear. And this exception is a striking con- 
firmation of the rule ; for fear is the sole instinct of an ab- 
stract, a negative nature indispensable, fiom the fii"st, to 
the fundamental end of self-preservation. 

The next stage, or adolescence, installs the conditions 
of Moral life, namely, the passions, which result from the 
resistance offered the appetites by external circumstances; 
then the will, developed by reflection upon man's experi- 
ence of the ability to overcome that resistance by the in- 
terposition of means. This pretended faculty of the will, 
though like the rest but a mere effect, is still imagined 
commonly to be an independent cause, and in that quality 
to give morality to human action. Hence the designation 
of this second epoch as moral. 

The third and final is characterized by the prevalence 
of Reason. It is the mature age of the understanding, 
when the blind desires and the visionary designs that re- 
spectively disorder the two preceding periods, come to 



56 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

subside (of course proportionably to the perfection at- 
taiuetl) into obedience to an authority effectually opera- 
tive and external. For religion and the moral sense — the 
o-uides of infancy and adolescence — are really subjective, 
and accordingly shift with the vicissitudes of their age, 
whereas man has never yet been able to nullify the au- 
thority or deprecate the penalty of a single natural law. 
But it is the prerogative of reason to see, and to submit to, 
this inexorable and truly providential rule. 

Religion, Morality, Natural law — here, again, is an- 
other and a more familiar phase of our three successive Se- 
ries of Perception ; including, of course, the respective sub- 
Processes, from sensation to imagination, from reflection 
to generalization, from reasoning to science. The specific 
identity will hereafter be found to be self-evident, when 
contemplated on the enlarged scale of a nation or a race. 

2. Meanwhile the individual offers other confirmations 
of both the succession and number of the principal stages. 
Respecting the number, he adds, for instance, to the third 
or Rational stage, even in the highest degree as yet 
attained, no fourth form of development. No doubt, even 
this degree is little more than a mere commencement of 
the illimitable career of Science. But the object of sci- 
ence being essentially homogeneous — namely, the aggre- 
gate of real relations between Nature and Humanity — it 
seems to follow that no farther instrument than Reasoning 
can be requisite, and consequently that this inaugurates 
the final epoch of Civilization. It may be said indeed that 
a lobe additional to the system of the brain might evolve 
a new order of scientific relations. But the double an- 
swer is, that the organ is a consequence of the function j 
and, again, that were it otherwise, no such addition could 
be well expected to multiply the number of real or sensi- 
ble relations ; for the previous organic divisions revealed 
no new orders of relation, any more than did the discovery 
of the microscope or telescope ; they merely superadded 
new aspects of the old impressions ; these views becom- 
ing progressively less imperfect and illusory, until they 
open, with the third stage, into the complete and the 
true. In other words, the progression is not in the num- 
ber of the objects, but in the perfection of the optics; it 
is from seeing the same things singly and as through a 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 5*7 

glass, to seeing tliem openly and face to face. And this 
perfection finds its consummation in the scope of percep- 
tion termed science. Still I do not mean to say, that the 
decay of the individual — although seemingly repeated in 
the historic fate of nations — is to be dreaded as a type of 
the ultimate destiny of our species. I here confine myself to 
an inference of the mental finality of the third term, from 
the uniform and immediate succession of decay. And then 
the order of this decay bears a testimony still more posi- 
tive to the fact of the antecedent progression; for it 
recedes by an exactly inverted gradation, that is to say, in 
the mental sphere, from reason to morals, and from morals 
to the "second childhood" of superstition; and, in the 
physical system, from the nervous activity of the intellec- 
tual lobes of the brain to the muscular, connected princi- 
pally with the moral division, and from this to the vital or 
vegetative energy, dependent on the posterior region. 

3. Not having been willing to place scientific reliance 
upon the testimony of phrenology, I am tempted to con- 
firm it, at the suggestion of the last allusion, by at once a 
similarly organic and still more fundamental proof of the 
threefold principle of mental manifestation. It is no less 
than the existence, integral and apart, of three corres- 
ponding organs in the human body, acknowledged to be 
the three great centres of its complicate vitality. I mean 
the stomach, the heart, and the brain. For they are not 
only situated separately one from the other, but may 
exist independently in this order. Such at least is, I be- 
lieve, the opinion of the best physiologists, from Haller 
downwards. In fact, the every-day occurrence of dream- 
less sleep, is it not a temporary death of the brain ; while 
the other two organs operate with their usual or with aug- 
mented force 1 So in the next stage, we know a paralysis 
of the heart does not necessarily suspend the action of the 
stomach ; nor does it always prove fatal to life ; which of 
course must find refuge meanwhile in this fundamental 
fortress. Now these several organs, unlike the bumps of 
the cranioscopists, are anatomically known to relate to 
our three Series of mental functions. Coincident, we 
see, in point of number, in progress of position, in order 
of decline, and in dependence of existence in the ascend- 
ing line, the correlation is still more clear in their intimate 
6 



oS Vestiges oi'' civilization', 

tlq>oiulouco whoii taken in the de.^cending onler. For 
as the liatloiiul scries of Processes were seen to resnlt 
from the Ivellex or moral, and the latter to have proceeded 
from the sensuous reign of the ap}>etiles ; so the stomach, 
heart, and brain, are superposed, as it were, upon one an- 
other, if not mechanically at least functionally, in their sea- 
sons of reUuive predominance in the individual, as, also, in 

the succession of their oroanic evolutions. For, instead of 

.... 
giung into discussions perhaps too curious to he thought 

serious, it will sutlice to refer to the animal kingdom at 
large — of which the human hody is known to contain a 
complete epitome or compHcation — and where whole spe- 
cies may be found with only the lowest oi' the organs in 
question ; others confmed to the secinid in addition ; others 
still possessing all three, and moreover presenting the 
brain in all its stages of formation. 

4. But if from tracino- an orijanic evidence of our men- 
. . ... 

tal law of progression irom the individual man into the 

lower animals, we turn upwards to society, the vestiges are 
much more legible. This in fact was demonstrably neces- 
sary ; for a system composed like society of homogeneous 
and aliquot parts, must have propoitionably re}noduced 
the functional features of the elements. As, however, 
history is the proper field of our formal verification, the 
preparatory exposition must be kept to a case or two, in 
confirmation of the last extreme example. 

The successive emergence and ascendant of the or- 
gans alluded to would be best evinced historically by the 
fact, if such there be, of a general attribution of the intel- 
lectual powers to one or other of the interior systems. But 
is it that mankind have ever placed the mind in the heart 
or the stomach ? ^Vhy, it is only recently, speaking com- 
paratively, that they have restored it to the head. For nu- 
merous ages of the most civilized nations, it had been tra- 
velling upward through the spinal marrow ; where it was 
deemd to lodge at a day so late and in a brain so great as 
those of Descartes. A greater still, and perhaps the most 
vigorous that has ever adorned and enlightened the spe- 
cies, had lived and labored in calm unconsciousness (like 
all superior energies) of its o^^^l severe and life-long opera- 
tions. But even Aristotle could not far transcend, and 
more especially in a point of consciousness, the general 



ANALYSIB OF THE HUMAN MINI). 50 

Opinion of bin ago. WljiJo for tlic opponito cause tljcrc 
in not a poota.stcr of the pro.scnt day wlio Ih not tormonted 
(if you lake liiH rhyrno for it) with throbbings of the brain ; 
having loarncrl tlio uho, porhapH the cxiHtencc, of that or- 
gan from tho plironologistB — fhcrnHclvos a product of its 
riaHccnt predominance with the genera] cxerciKO of rea- 
son and advent of Kcience. In fact the very name of this, 
latest tribe of mental explorers is an attestation that 
tlje Greek abode of the intellect was long tlie heart., 
This was also deemed its organ by the ancient Egyptians. 
Accordingly this jjrimeval people sliifted downwards, in. 
due ord(;r, the Moral attributes to the grfjund-floor of the 
stomach ; for such was tlie meaning of their sacrificing, in 
tlie process of embalming, to Tyj^lion or the evil principle, 
the contents of the abdomen as having caused the immoral 
actions of tlic deceased. And this allocation may claim 
the authority of a tljousand passages uf the Jewish liible.. 
It will not of course be understood by the turn of expres- 
sion, that the intellectual principle dislodged the moral 
from the heart : for it is the latter that, on the contrary,, 
must, in the order of development, have detruded the intel- 
lect both from the heart at a later epoch, and previously 
from tljo stomach, whore the infant action of bf^h had 
been originally merged in turn, by the supreme vortex of 
vegetative life. And such a reference of the mind, also, 
to tljc dim centre of sensational activity, would be found, 
I doubt not, to have prevailed among the Egyptians at a 
still earlier j)eriod, as among every other people in a 
strictly primitive slate, could their f(;elings be possibly 
recorded in liislory, or even accurately reported by them- 
selves. In fact Ellis, in his Polynesian liescarches, makes 
mention of this odd notion as still current among some 
of the rudest communities of the South Sea savages. But 
what need of going so far into the darkly past or distant, 
when we have the expert and European testimony of a 
medical school of the seventeenth century ? For who has 
not heard of the '* archaeus" or astral man of Van Ilel- 
mont, and the " rational soul" of Stahl, which had their seat 
in the stomach 1 And the probative force of these specu- 
lative instances will be seen more fully in the serjuel, when 
the authors are found completing a medical reformation, 
and thus conducted (by Keilection) to the lowest founda- 



60 VESTIGES OF Cn'ILIZATIOXr 

\\on i)f the anciont doctrines, m>t merely in the barlicivian, 
but down to the savage, belief. No iloubt the supposed 
analogy of the actions of the stomach to certain contempo- 
rary revehitions of chemistry might be urged as the direct 
instigator of the particular individuals. .l>ut the etlects 
will bo found concomitant in the order of nature, and the 
progress of knowledge. 

In fine, if we now retrace the upward order of the de- 
velopment, there must have been a ])eriod at which the 
three Series of Perception were imagined to be distri- 
buted among the three centres of the body, before the 
procession of the two lower tenants had been put in mo- 
lion towards the brain. Accordingly, this naive notion 
found its fit exponent in Plato, whom Aristotle did not 
credit enough to notice in this }>articular. The doctrine 
is, indeed, ascribed to the much more ancient Timanis; 
but I sliould think u]>on no better ground than that the 
Locrian sage is the chief }>ersonage of, and gives the title 
to, the dial(>gue in which the tenet is ex}M)unded. It runs, 
IiOwever, to the clfect, that each human individual, is 
endowed wnth three " souls," to wit, the vegetative, the 
animal, and the rational ; and that they reside respectively 
in the stomach, heart, and head. Plato being the oracle 
of mediirval, as of modern igNorance, the illusion was 
transmitted downwards to the seventeenth, or eight- 
eenth century; when the most philoso}>hic of physiologists, 
Barthez, does still little more than modify it, in his three 
' dynamisms" of j)erccj)tio?i, as well as of power. Soon, 
after, however, this percoj>tive tri-unity of the mind was 
found by Gall to have arrived altogether in the brain; but 
even here is deemed, as usual, to occupy separate quar- 
ters, and situated exactly in the onward line of march. 

In addition to the direct object of veritying inductively 
the reality and nature of the law in ijucstion, the foregoing 
sketch presents a slight sample of the mode of operation 
by which it is destined to explain the history of human 
opinion and institution. The reader may prepare himself, 
by this simple and signal instance, to mark the grand pro- 
cessional progress of the three Series of Perception, 
revolving each upon a like succession of its three sub- 
ordinate Processes ; the terms defiling from mere 
Sensation, one by one, to their full expansion, and then 



ANALYSIS OF TIIR HUMAN MIND. Gl 

resolved, in the inverse order, into tljc Hlagc of Method at 
the other end ; this double manr/iuvre, moreover, executed 
upon each ascending complication that graduates the 
phenomena] scale of the universe, and thus drawn out 
into the enormous succession of such processions which 
constitute the career of civilization ; the whole operation, 
while embracing the human sjjccies within its circumfer- 
ence, yet having its seminal segment, so to say, in each of 
the individuals, described, as in the case adduce^, by the 
imaginary j)assage of the mental energy from the st(;mach 
to the forepart of the brain. 

G. If facts so universal, resting upon inferences so 
necessary, and recognized by documents so varic^us, could 
need the sanction of authority, 1 might cumulate the proof 
with the testimony of tlieology. But, although even 
divine evidence could add nothing to demonstration, I 
may be pardoned the precaution of insisting a little 
longer, to conciliate all consciences and to convince all 
capacities. 

For the lowest are well satisfied, the Deity himself 
assures us that mankind have been made after the image 
of the Creator. ]3ut this image is also known to combine, 
in a unity of essence, a trinity of jjcrsons, that is to say of 
characters, of mental attributes. In fact these characters 
arc quite identical in nature as well as number with thc- 
Principles of human Perception; they are only of course 
infinitely m(jre perfect in degree. The analogy was 
urged expressly, and 2)erha2)S incautiously, by the earlier 
Fathers, in illustration of the mystery of three persfjiis in. 
one. Augustine, in particular, argues repeatedly that the 
Trinity is imaged in the three principal " faculties" of the 
human mind, which he states, with a remarkable confijr- 
mity to the above views, to be " Memory, Intellect, and 
Will." With those in fact, the correspondence of the divine 
faculties is evident. For are the latter not revealed to 
us as respectively representing : first, the Spirit, that is to 
say the insjnrallon of Life (adopting Sensation as the 
stricter type of the primary Series), or inspiration of know- 
ledge, if we take Memory, with St. Augustine, who might 
be led into this slight inaccuracy by the Platonic tenet of 
reminiscence, and also by the mythological parentage of the 
Muses (§ 14) ; secondly, the Providence, that is to say^ 
6* 



62 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOK. 

Design or Will ; and, thirdly, the Mediator, that is to say, 
Intellect or Ilcason, above explained to be the attribute 
which intcrj)()ses media for the execution of the projects 
of will. This order of succession is, however, I grant, at 
variance with the Augustinian statement of the mental 
analogues or prototypes ; where the will, which is the 
symbolic principle of our middle Series of Perception, 
usurps the third and final station of the intellect or logos. 
But this is an interveriion incidental to the epoch, and of 
which we shall hereafter see the characteristic signifi- 
cance. Nor is this all. Not only does the order of suc- 
cession, but also the idea of progression, present a much 
more serious discrepancy with the orthodox doctrine of 
the Trinity ; according to which the divine persons take 
the nearly inverse arrangement of Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, or in the terms of our exegesis. Will, 
Reason, Sensation ; and, moreover, so far fiom derivation, 
are deemed co-ordinate and co-eternal. 

To the latter point, I answer, that the infallible Church 
is herself divided, the Greek moiety in fact maintaining a 
procession of the third Person. And as to the other two, 
the ^.original ])revalence of the notion is confessed in the 
very terms of father and son. This philological indication 
is coniirmed by the well known frequency of heresies 
upon this subject in the primitive Church. Some of 
these, in fact, contended for the second stage of the pro- 
cession; thus substantially coinciding with the law of 
mental progression, as exhibited in the several triads of 
Perception. None, however, have attempted to rectify 
the inversion of order by restoring the Holy Ghost to the 
first place. But this was doubtless because the chrono- 
logical conception had been doubly barred, at once by 
the family nomenclature, and by the social convention 
which conceives dignity as descending in the order of 
enumeration ; whereas the law of progression is, on the 
contrary, like the law of heaven itself, where the last is 
ranked the highest and the first is rated lowest. And if 
we now consider, that, in spite of the interpolations of 
Platonism and the mystifications indigenous to all theo- 
logy, the psychology of the Christian Trinity has been so 
tolerably interpreted — at a time too when the human 
faculties, thus mipersonated, had been regarded, as they 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 63 

are generally even to this day, as being all co-ordinate 
and congenital — we must recognize that characteristic of 
a fundamental law of nature which emjDowers it to force a 
passage through the incrustations of individual ignorance, 
and to find expression, through the collective instincts of 
an age, in advance of its systematic opinion. In fine, the 
revealed conformity of the trinitarian " likeness" to the 
threefold and progressive Principle of Perception, is 
not only evident from the foregoing discussions, and 
infallible from the declaration of the Creator himself, but 
is also necessary from the nature of the process of crea- 
tion. For this demands first (what is premordially a syno- 
nym with Sensation or life) a Force to act ; secondly, a 
Will to intend ; thirdly, a Reason to execute — the power, 
the plan, the application of the one to the other. Accord- 
ingly, it will in due season appear, that this is the histori- 
cal order as well as progressive character of the three 
persons of the Trinity ; who should consequently be 
ranged : the Holy Ghost, the Father, the Son ; that is to 
say, the infant or theological conception of the three pro- 
gressive Series or Cycles of Perception. Meanwhile I 
may add the testimony of a thinking theologian, who, 
being himself a great creator, knew best the requisites of 
such a task. I mean the poet Dante, in that terrible in- 
scription which will probably outlast the infernal gates 
that bear it : — 

" Feccmi la dWrn^jio testate^ 
La somma sapienzia, o 'I primo amore. (1) 

6. But perhaps it may be denied me, in a scientific 
argument, to take advantage of the disclosures of Revela- 
tion. In that case, I could appeal to the thousand trini- 
ties of heathenism, in ancient Greece, in Egypt, Pheni- 
cia, Persia, India, and even Mexico, Tlascala, Peru ; in 
short, in every nation of the world under the primitive 
Cycle of civilization. And as these have all been either 
anterior or alien to the true one, their underived and inde- 
pendent concurrence with our law of mind could have possi- 
bly no other source than the three Processes of the primary 

(1) I am made by poicer divine. 

Consummate toisdom, and primeval love. 



64 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Series — sensation, memory, and imagination — obliged, by 
the conceptive exigencies, to be afterwards explained, to 
unify, in the shape of gods, tlieir successive notions of 
Nature. At least the sole alternative would be now a 
desperate resort. For it ofl'ers but the hard dilemma of 
cither pretending, with the Catholics, that the heathen 
trinities too are revelations, only forged by the devil to 
forestall or frustrate the genuine article ; or of allowing 
their pagan promulgators a high place among the Jewish 
Prophets — indeed above Moses himself, who foretold noth- 
ing of this saving mystery. 

§ 17. In conclusion, then, the human mind, from its 
lowest condition to the highest capacity, consists of a sin- 
gle faculty under nine forms of operation. The entire train 
of perceptive stages, though regularly progressive, is found 
to constitute three capital diversities, demarkated by the 
circumstance of systematizing the phenomenal world upon 
so many dilferent principles of uniformity. These princi- 
ples, which I shall designate, from the radical term of each 
Series, by the names of Life, Will, and Reason, may, 
therefore, be inventoried among the sim])lc furniture of 
the mind. Not, however, that they should pass for '* facul- 
ties" any more than the elementary Processes; both alike 
are results, and ditler but as the integer from its compo- 
nent fractions. Still the name is of little consequence, if 
the things themselves bo well remembered, both in their 
proper characters and purposed application. In the 
former asjiect, they seem to be sufficiently explained and 
established. In the other, it may be useful to image them 
additionally, as stations from which successively the mind 
varies its point of view. Pegs, from which, progressively, 
it weaves the web of its generalizations. Posts, to which 
it attaches itself in extricating humanity from that isolate 
and animal selfishness by which primitive mankind are 
rooted almost as locally as is the vegetable to a spot of 
earth. Pulleys, by which to wheel them round to that 
central point of science, whence all things, including man 
himself, are open to direct ■perception, as component and 
concordant parts of a single whole. Types, in fine, 
through which he seeks to divine the nature of the 
strange phenomena that suround him, some to crush and 
some comfort. Or to speak without further metaphor, 



ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. 65 

tlicy are the tlircc models of resemblance, whereby man 
must conceive, progressively, the collective appearances 
of Nature. 

§ 18. The word Conception, which by anticipation was 
already predicated of those types or principles, remains 
(alone, })erhaps, of the so-called faculties) to be defined. 
Applied to the primary Series, which wc saw result in the 
formation of images, the act of intellection from tho 
relative completeness of the impression, received its spe- 
cific title of 7>'6rception. At the analogous stage of the 
succeeding Series, where the relations came to present a 
second term, in the shape of a theory, a generating essence, 
the combined perception got the equally significant name 
oC concc])tion. Now, this being the exact relation between 
the faculty of Perception and each of the three Principles 
explained, conce2)tion is the proper term to describe them 
all in common. They will, therefore, be denominated 
Conceptual I^rinciples of the mind, and distinguished 
by the epithets Vital, Volitional, and Rational. These 
three Princij)les of Conception, with their three subordi- 
nate triads of Processes, and the sole Faculty of Percep- 
tion, of which they are all but complications — such is, T 
think, a complete analysis of the Mechanism of the Hu- 
man Mind, both individual and collective ; and which 
accordingly, should serve to explain not only all that it 
has hitlierto operated, but to outline what it may ever 
attain in its present sphere or constitution. 

It is first, however, to undergo an additional ordeal, and 
one incalculably more severe than the foregoing multiform 
inductions. For if correct, it must find an exact counter- 
part, both of principle and progression, in the web of ob- 
stacle and arrangement, above alleged to have developed 
it. I mean the complexity of the great co-factor of our 
social theorem — the External World. 



66 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIO^^ 



CHAPTEE II. 

Logical and Chronological Constitution of 
Nature. 

§ 19. Relations, the sole object of Perception, of con- 
sciousness, were clistinguishecl in the preceding chapter 
(§ 14), as presenting two orders of consideration ; the one, 
in which the relations are subjective, personal, partial, and 
compose the progressive history of knowledge ; the other, 
in which they are objective, absolute, immutable, and con- 
stitute the organism (perhaps also the history) of nature : 
the one, in which they arc perceived, progressively, under 
the shape of sensations, substances, relations ; the other, in 
which they may be perceived, uniformly, in their indefinite 
amplitude of laws. The former aspect has, though inci- 
dentally yet sufficiently for the present purpose, been con- 
sidered in analyzing the correlative Processes of the mind. 
We are now to sketch the latter by a similarly succinct 
analysis. 

§ 20. But ere proceeding it may first be well to cau- 
tion the inadvertent reader, that I do not purpose in thus 
employing the terms objective and absolute, to descant upon 
the nature of tilings in themselves. The opposite reveries 
of Fitche and Shelling are, in fact, cut oft' at the root by 
the fundamental and self-evident position of this discussion, 
namely, that nothing can be known of any thing save in 
relation to the mind. I say this is self-evident ; for is it 
not an absurdity, a contradiction in the very terms, to sup- 
pose a knowledge, real or otherwise, that did not pass 
through the act of knowing? Why Revelations them- 
selves, with the Omnipotent at their disposal, never ima- 
gined the possibility of eliminating this condition ; their 
communications, on the contrary, bear the most naively 
close relation to the state of the knowing faculty in those 
who receive them. Moreover, this faculty itself is, reci- 
procally, but a relation. And this circumstance — abundantly 
established in the foregoing pages — would alone necessi- 
tate that things external could be known only relationally, 
even whether they were really constituted so or not. For 



ANALYSIS OF COSMIC AL NATURE. 67 

if not, they could apparently be no more accessible by 
Perception, than odours by the eyes, or colours by the fin- 
gers ; they would be in the predicament of what are 
termed incommensurable quantities, of which the nature 
is to exclude one another. 

But although the relative character of Perception im- 
plies the relational constitution of phenomena, it would not 
perhaps equally evince the reality of their subjects. For it 
might be objected, and has been argued, that the visible 
universe may be nothing but a phantasm, which passes 
in the magic lantern of the mind itself Such was the 
deduction of Berkley from the skepticism of Hume. It 
was also by a quite kindred conjunction of these two ex- 
tremes, which always beget the one the other in the land 
of dreams, that the Ego and the Absolute of the German 
visionaries above named, pretend to start from the nega- 
tion (or rather in this instance an imaginary exclusion), the 
former of matter, and the other of both matter and mind, 
in order to prove how well they could fathom the nature of 
" things in themselves," by re-creating them literally, like 
the God of Moses, out of nothing. No doubt, to sound 
philosophy as well as to plain sense, such attempts must be 
fitly imaged by the squirrel in a revolving cage, or better 
still the serpent that devoured itself by the tail. Yet neither 
of these adverse systems, any more than Berkleyanism, has 
— notwithstanding their incongruity with each other and 
with common sense — been logically confuted, I believe, to 
this hour. Why ? Because their respective ages and subse- 
quent critics agree implicitly with the authors in conceiv- 
ing the human mind as an entity ; that is to say, a point 
which by an imaginary fluxion, may be supposed to gene- 
rate at its wild will, what lines and figures you may please, 
yet remain itself meanwhile without direction or dimensions. 
The metaphysicians having been allowed this convenient 
premiss as a fact, which the mathematicians assume only 
hypothetically, we may conceive both their notorious fer- 
tility in system-making, and the real impossibility of ever 
refuting their speculations to parties moving in the ideal 
plane of the same negative principle. It would be like argu- 
ing that a geometrical figure was false in itself, or more or 
less true than are an infinite multitude of others ; whereas 
they were all alike supposedt however variously systema- 



68 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

tized, upon an ultimate imaginary postulate. But when 
we come to the age of knowing that mind is nothing more 
than Perception, and perception but a relation, a function, 
a line ; there is offered a real foothold for evidence and in- 
ference. And the most immediate inference — so imme- 
diate, indeed, as to be almost an identical proposition — is 
this ; that relation implies something to relate to, function 
something to be operated by, perception something to 
perceive, mind what we call matter. So that it seems we 
have not only equal, but the individually same evidence 
for the real existence of the latter, that we boast for that 
of the former, of those two co-efficients of cognos- 
cence. (1) 

Nor is this all ; though it seems quite sufficient for the 
refutation of Berkley — a task esteemed the " asses* 
bridge" of the metaphysical epoch. The same inference 
is still corroborated in a vastly accelerated ratio, by the 
progression now disclosed among the nine Processes of 
Perception. For even supposing the mind an entity, 
what is there that can be alleged to have directed, or at all 
determined it in such a system of expedients, so admirably 
superposed, as it were, one upon another, to surmount a 
series of difficulties that had no real existence ? While 
the modes of mind were considered as isolate, to explain 
one was to explain all, or rather all seemed alike inexpli- 
cable, as was shown in fact by Hume, and as is indeed the 
nature of all elementary individuality : but link them in re- 
lation, and let the relation be progressive, and the progres- 
sion be complication, and there is a threefold necessity for 
an exterior and continuous cause. It was probably a 
vague sentiment of this cause, that led the comprehensive 
mind of Leibnitz to the celebrated hypothesis of the Pre- 
established Harmony. Recognizing as the sole alterna- 
tive to the absurdity just suggested, the real existence of 
a certain order in the material world, but being still 
unable to conceive how matter could act directly upon 
his mental entity, Leibnitz imagined the Creator to have 
instituted, in the beginning, a preconcert of occurrence 

(1.) The case of dreams, visions, &c., above alluded to, makes no 
exception ; perception, then too, presupposes something real, namely, 
a particular state of the mental organ ; and this relates to a still ante- 
rior and more external impression. 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL XATURE. 69 

between the two series of manifestations. This truly 
German solution was exemplified by two clocks, which 
should be set to, and would keep, of course, without con- 
nection, the same time ; but the author failed or forgot to 
show how the analogue of mind could have operated 
at all without an organism of matter. To escape, among 
other flaws, this crude assumption of the question, Mal- 
branche could only substitute the divine workman for the 
work, and instead of the mental clock, suppose a peq^e- 
tual conduit, or as the term was the Occasional Causes, of 
all perception in God himself — that last and bountiful 
refuge of all impotence and nonsense. Such were the 
puerile efforts of some of the mightiest of intellects to ex- 
plain the correlation of perceptive action and order, on the 
assumption that mind and matter were, one or both of 
them, repugnant entities. But pioneered by their inevita- 
ble errors, we can now confine ourselves to the facts ; and 
these refuse to teach us more about the so-called sub- 
stances of mind or matter, than is disclosed by the vast 
aggregate of perceptions named experience. Besides 
their direct import, however, these perceptions being all 
relations, authorize, or rather oblige us, to infer the reality 
of both the terms; though what may be their other condi- 
tions, or even the mediate principle of their ultimate mani- 
festations — the fundamentum relationis, to use a scholas- 
tic expression — even this, and a fortiori whatever may lie 
beyond, being essentially presupposed by the act itself of 
Knowing, it is a patent absurdity to even attempt to pene- 
trate. Turning therefore from this blank wall to survey 
the contents of the grand inclosure, it may be oberved, 
that the mass of perceptions, whether individual or collec- 
tive, lie attached to the outer term in certain lines of uni- 
formity, while at the mental end they fluctuate in opening 
angles of inclination. Here then is the great confirmation 
of the real existence of the external world. For we see that 
it is the ruling, the resisting term of the relation ; that this 
assurance goes on multiplying in accelerated proportion 
to the extension of known relations or the detection of 
new, and that the progress in these directions is always 
an exact measure of the mental power of individuals, 
nations, or the species. So that the internal world could be 
much more plausibly resolved into a mere result. Be 
7 



70 VESTIGES 0¥ CIVILIZATION. 

that liowever as it may, whether in the complication of 
organ directly, or ulteriorly in the gradation of obstacle, 
the development of mind is the demonstration of matter. 

But the occasion of these remarks had less to do with 
the real than with the relational existence of the univei'se. 
Or rather, the purpose merely was to precaution against 
mistaking the term objective and the like in the current 
transcendental sense. They can mean in these pages but 
(to recur to the same metaphor) the complete rectangu- 
larity of position towards the mind which enables it to 
see relations in their full prolongation of laws, and laws 
ajrain interwoven into the collective absoluteness of sci- 
ence. The correlative terms subjective, &c., will equally 
import relation, but in the previous and preparatory stages 
of Perception. At the same time,, this incidental expo- 
sure of an effete doctrine, though doubtless now unneces- 
sary, was not without its use. For a system, however 
monstrous, while thought to challenge refutation, is liable, 
as experience proves, to be revived from time to time ; 
and is meanwhile a standing disgrace to the pretensions 
of philosophy, which affects to repudiate, without being 
able to refute it. On the too natural ground of Augus- 
tine's faith in another doctrine, people cling to it for the 
very reason that it is impossible and absurd. Nor is the 
mania to be cured, it is only aggravated, by vituperation. 
The patient is, even no more than the hapless inmate of 
an asylum., to be contradicted as to the reality or impor- 
tance of his phantasy ; he must be gradually lured around 
to the humihating swamp of his own ignorance, whence 
arose the misty grandeur of the illusion. In other words 
you must not argue but explain. And as soon as philoso- 
phers have themselves philosophy enough to apply this 
treatment to popular prejudices, there will then be hope 
of rescuing the mass of mankind from the impostures of 
all sorts which they breed, as carrion does maggots, to 
feed upon their own substance. But these reflections, 
suggested by the central source of the mischief, it becomes 
me less to inculcate by precept than example. In at- 
tempting to do so slightly in reference to the mystic ne- 
gation of matter, the explanation has served, moreover, to 
affirm that phenomena exist, not only really and relation, 
ally, but also in a certain regular order. The question is- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. 71 

then, to ascertain and to characterize them in this sole as- 
pect with which history, or science, or humanity can be 
concerned. 

§ 21. This task is much abridged by the progress already 
made. Besides the fundamental fact that the universe is, 
to man, but a vast tissue or network of relations, we are 
also warranted in now concluding, from the sole simple- 
ness of the mind, that not a thread of this logical texture 
could have ever been traced out, in original absence of 
the following conditions : That there was some one relation 
supremely simple in itself, and at the same time sufficiently 
comprehensive to embrace, and connected in such a way 
as to control, the whole web ; and secondly, that the same 
qualities should hold proportionally of each other relation 
with respect to that succeeding it, along to the end. 
Without the former of these arrangements. Perception 
would find it impossible to gather from the chaos of phe- 
nomena any one of the laws of nature ; and without the lat- 
ter, which only repeats the same condition on a narrower 
scale. It would be equally impossible to distinguish ai 
two apart. For did any two, or all of them apply alik- 
to all phenomena, we may be sure that, even if the com- 
pound were not inaccessible to the human mind, thero 
could be no notion of distinct laws, to the extent of such 
conjunction; in fact it was their graduated inequalities 
of concurrence that taught to separate them analyticallv 
m the points of amalgamation. But as they are actually 
known to be individual, and thought to be innumerable, 
the infei^ence is necessary that they observe the grada- 
tion required, and that its nature is a progressive compli- 
cation of unity. The conclusion might be confirmed, we 
see, by the quite analogous law of mind, if it was not de- 
sirable to have each of the subjects, so far as they can bo 
severed, to stand or fall by its own evidence alone. 

In proceeding to sketch the scale of the cosmical com- 
plications, I wish the reader could divest himself of tho 
distracting prepossessions, arising, among other sources, 
from a plurality of senses, and would conceive this web- 
work of natural laws to be tangible but to experience, the 
sense of touch, as it may be termed, of the intellect. Then 
to figure to himself experience as merely tracing on the 
table of memory (by the so-called " laws of association") 



any 



72 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the progress of Perception through the dark chaos of phe- 
nomena ; and Perception conducted, on the one hand, by 
the exchisivcness of its own simpHcity of structure and the 
instinct of a necessary conformity with the medium where- 
in it operates, and on the other by both the relative regu- 
larity of form and frequency of occurrence among the 
aggregate of impressions. From this ideal, but only sci- 
entific point of view, it will not be difficult to designate at 
once the positive order and historical evolution of the 
fundamental laws of our system. It is but little more 
than to determine, from grade to grade of the scale, what is 
the relation or attribute which may be predicated truly of 
the largest remaining diversity of phenomena. 

§ 22. 1. The first example of this summary rule, 
and thus the fundamental law of science, is evidently the 
relation of Number. It applies not only to all objects, 
but also to all ideas, and even to all imaginations, in all 
places and all times. It begins to press itself upon Per- 
ception with the first sensations of conscious infancy. Of 
all phenomena, there is no other cither accessible at all 
through each of the several senses, or determinable exactly 
by any ; but eveiy sense that can discriminate, can ij^so 
facto number. Number in short is even co-extensive with 
the universal substrate of existence ; from which, in accord 
with a preceding remark, it is consequently found insepa- 
rable, if indeed the things are not much the same, as ety- 
mology would seem to indicate. (1) Next in order, and 
of course importance, is the relation of Magnitude. This 
attribute, though greatly more restricted in extension, that 
is to say, less common among the aggregate of phenomena, 
still presents with the law of number a larger concurrence 
than does any other. It is manifestly predicable of all ma- 
terial objects, and even reigns in the ** inane realms" of 
space and time. Nay, curious to note, it is made to follow 
its predecessors even into the domain of ideas^ — which are 
known to be sometimes ■measured by the degress of com- 
parison : this, however, by grammatical licence or under 
mask of a metaphor. Now an intimacy thus, at all events, 
as general as the real world, between these primary rela- 
tions, of number and measure, might be thought to have 

(1] Ex-sto, to stand out from, to individuate. 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. 73 

prepared the mind to pass at once and without difficulty 
to discern the latter law, allowing it ever so heterogene- 
ous. But were it really so in any degree, there is no ex- 
tent of association, that, if our principles be sound, could 
fit perception to bridge the gulf It was but by following, 
for countless ages, the modifications of its own identity, that 
it came spontaneously to generalize the law of number ; 
even so was it but by a farther modification of this new unity 
that it could ever have found its way to the law of mag- 
nitude. It was done in fact by observing that magnitudes 
are all made up of a number of parts ; which is to say, 
that this relation is a complication of the previous. The 
stage succeeding was attained by a similar transition, from 
the body of the magnitude to its bounding extremities. 
This surface of cessation (so to call it) left the relation of 
Figure. Accordingly figure is in turn a complication of 
magnitude ; each figure being, in fact, resolvable into any 
number of magnitudes, while no magnitude can have 
more than a single figure. This law is also quite con- 
formable to the test of limitation — being excluded from at 
least the two pervading magnitudes of space and time, of 
which the peripheries sTill remain to be attained or imag- 
ined. It is only by a fiction that, like its predecessor, it is 
sometimes pressed into the abstract combinations of intel- 
lect ; or rather it is through the medium of the semi-mate- 
rial creation called language. Here, however, it is worth 
remarking, it keeps the same ratio to the component law,- 
for as this law of measure is the real prototype of the 
simple simile called a " trope," so the composite notion 
gives its nature as well as name to the comjDlication. 
of tropes styled a " figure." I believe this is the first 
time that these famous "tools" of the rhetorician have re- 
ceived a rational, though incidental explanation : but 
abundantly more of such things as we proceed. Percep- 
tion had now attained the co-ordination of all phenomena 
considered individually and at rest. But this was, even to 
mere sense, a small proportion to the vast aggregate, of 
which the most part seemed more or less regularly and 
constantly in motion. Now, how was motion, the wild 
embodiment of variation itself, to be viewed as one, or re- 
duced to the uniformity of law? The task was manifestly 
much more arduous than either of the previous stages. 
7* 



74 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOS. 

and must accordingly have taken ages additional for its 
accomplishment. Not, liovvevcr, that the passage to the 
new relation was more abrupt ; motion still was but a 
complication, a modljicallon of the same bodies already 
numbered, measured, figured. But the obstacle lay in 
the circumstance, that Perception had to retrace its steps 
from one to another of these antecedent relations, pro- 
fessedly to fmd a cause for this froward order of phenom- 
ena, but providentially to meet a passage from the plane 
of space into that of time. Except this circuit, the transi- 
tion was proportionably easy, or we may be sure it had 
never been effected. It must have occurred in this obvious 
way. 

The phenomena of motion would early distinguish 
themselves into occasional and perpetual. Of the latter, 
some of the most conspicuous were also seen to be peri- 
odical, to circulate at regular intervals of time in the 
same courses. Such were primarily the returns, diurnal 
and annual, o^ the sun, and monthly of the moon ; and 
later the revolutions of the planets. Now, the image of 
a circular motion was a next-door-neighbor, as it were, to 
figure ; especially in that spheric»l consummation of the 
law which is technically known as the tri-sectlon of the 
Cone. And so, in fact, it was by application of one of 
these conic figures, the ellipse, that the real motions of the 
planets have been definitely ^>c/rc/rcif. Nor need human- 
ity wait to unify this class of motions, though on ruder 
models, for the advent of Kepler, or even of Archimedes 
and Apollonius ; otherwise these great embodiments of 
its own proficiency had never been. It saw, no doubt, 
from early infancy, that a string of wampum stretched be- 
tween two savages, of whom the one should move around, 
while the other remained stationary, produced a complete 
image of the sort of motions in question ; a figure that 
liecame identical by simply imagining the string prolonged 
and fastened to the sun or other subject of the pheno- 
mena. (1) The passage was besides prepared by the fact 

(1) It seems, however, this profound conception is not yet altaiued 
by certain American antiquaries:, who, to say nothinj: of their nivtho- 
lofjy, infer a ofeomotry not less than PlattVs (and consequently the 
civihzatiou of Greece) from tlie circular earth-mounds of the INIissis- 
sippi. And our sole Aiiiericau Institute for the encouragement of sci- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURK. 75 

that the relation of figure had been really traced itself, 
and even its two predecessors, through a process of mo- 
tion : motion in the succession of sensations in the mind 
remembering, or of positions in the hand describing, or of 
places in the spectator circumambulating the larger bodies 
to collect the entire outline from their several sides. With 
this long experience of the practical evolution of figure in 
space, the conception would be quite spontaneously ex- 
tended to the ground of time — where, however, it must 
commence, of course, with the elementary shape, the cir- 
cle. But this figure proving inadequate to unify, to am- 
plify, to express exactly the motions of the ])lanets, the 
eccentricities must, by a like necessity, be referred to 
other ciicles ; which would thus for ages be superadded 
as the perturbations should present themselves, until at 
last this aof^lomeralion bred the same confusion in the 
heavenly motions from which the intellect had fled bewil- 
dered in the terrestrial. Here, then, and through the 
very efiurts made by man to oppose the result, was broken 
down the old distinction between motions perpetual and 
occasional ; or •' natural and violent," as they were cha- 
racterized by Aristotle. This hypothesis of violerce — 
which could never have arisen with reference to a motion 
supposed to return, like eternity, into itself; this accident, 
I say, of violence had thenceforth crossed the barrier, and 
opened a route to causation along to the confines of the 
Jixcd stars. Nor was this indispensable equalization the 
only gain of the human intellect from the epicyclical 
labors so often ridiculed with kindred ignorance. For there 
alone it found the facts of motion in that state of virtual 
abstraction from matter, which it w^as utterly incapable of 
then producing itself, and by means of which it was 
trained and strengthened for the complex exploration 
become now necessary by the failure of its go-cart of 

enco parades in a cosily folio such discreditable crudities! And our 
dificrimiuating poveninioiU rewards the authors with *' foreign mis- 
sions" — selected, moreover, uidi a slircwd view to the prosecution of 
the same " luure'siicst !'' We are, however, outillcd to plead, as im- 
plying uo great advance in us, the wonder of older countries at the 
astronomical proficiency supposed to be involved in the rude calendars 
constructed by baibarian nations, and which belong to the same epoch 
and operation described in the text. 



76 VESTIGKS OF OlVll.l/ATION. 

figuro. !Miitii)n, tlion, was so iiir but a hum c moclifualii)n ; 
in fact, a Iranslatlon ol'llgiirc on \hv })lano of linio. 

2. Tlio o\|UHliont no\l in tlio inverse or analytic order 
for tlio siniplilicalion ot* its phenomena was measnre. To 
this end, as in the case of the violent class of motions, it 
was requisite to return to the earth ; for tlic unit or prin- 
ciple of this quantitative motion could, ns usual, bo sup- 
plied but by rellection upon man's own consciousness, the 
only type of his scientific nonage for the interpretation of 
the universe. Here, accordingly, Terception observed 
tliat opj)osite motions might not only produce the contrary 
j>henoniena of rest, but also retain thereafter the samo 
activity as before. That, for example, when the two 
hands are prcwssed with violence togetlier, so as to balance 
each other's elfort, there is a sense of the same exertion 
mid fiOlowed by tb.e same exhaustion, as if the elfort was 
expended in producing motion in external bodies. Might 
not this, then, bo the internal condition of the so-called 
inertia, throughout all nature ? Such a surmise was pre- 
pared, moreover, by the fact, that the visible motit^is liad 
hitherto been attributed to a ruder transcript from the 
same consciousness, to a faculty in man himself to originate 
the like by will, I>ut rellection showed, that will could 
not originate the pressure in a state (for instance) of 
paralysis, or maintain it in extreme fatigue. There was 
something, then, in motion, both the latent and the visible, 
jfiorc rlJic'unf than the thing called will, and which, of 
course, became the new cause. And in this way was 
aroused from its seeming slumber of eternity the latent 
motion oi' pressure and ecjuilibrlum, and sent forth to ex- 
plain anew the mechanism of entire nature, under the 
nnified conception or symbol termed Force. It was first 
established experimentally in the three axioms called laws 
of motion. l>ut as Perception had, no longer, faith enough 
to take trinity for unity, it launched in quest of the latter 
again into the abstract stars, and discovered the law of 
universal gravitation. Now, what is the import of this 
law'? The reduction of the material universe, conceived 
in actual or virtual motion, to the fundamental relation of 
ninnbcr. It will be remembered we saw this rehit ion pos- 
sess the peculiar generality of controlling and connecting 
both the planes o\l space and time. It was therefore the 



ANALV8IS OF COBMICAL MATURE. '/V 

very outlet, tljo narrow Blrait by vvliicb the human intel- 
lect way destined to pass (if* I may bo express it) from the 
Atlantic of the mathematical, into the great Pacific ocean 
of the phywical sciences. And yet this vast promontory of 
Motion, which it had been coasting along in vain for ages, 
and of which it tasked this long deduction to barely indi- 
cate the outline, was nothing more than the mere turning 
of an angle of vision within itself; the passage from ob- 
serving the material world in position, to inspecting it in 
composition ; from perceiving the uniformities among 
bodies as they arc, to surveying the series of operations 
which keep and left them in that state. But of these 
operations the T'elalion of motion, not only in the quanti- 
tative, but even in the numerical extension, gave, of course, 
but a very general, the most general, account. It ex- 
plained but the ruder and most fundamental aggregations 
and changes. Nor could it be expected to do more, by 
any refinement upon its terms; such, for instance, as 
ascertaining that the molecular particles of matter arc 
actually all equal in weight. A detail, however, which, on 
being recently j)resented as the result of chemical experi- 
ment, has been received with the p'arade of a mysterious 
discovery, in a country where the same thing had been as- 
sented to for a century buck in the scientific terms of 
the mechanical theorem. J^csides this form, named grav- 
itation, however, which could thus explain but the amass- 
ment or collegation of the particles of matter together, 
the law of motion had, we have seen, in process of its ab- 
stract generalization, familiarized itself to Perception 
under two other combinations: these would thereby be re- 
sorted to to verify the residual })henomena concerning the 
specific constitution of bodies. — The first in order was rel- 
ative quantity, that is to say, the various proportions in 
which the elementary ingredients must have entered (or 
been moved) into the composition. This complication or 
species of latent motion or change is commonly called 
the attraction of Affinity ; it implies, also, of course, the 
negative comploment- of Jlopulsion, as mechanical attrac- 
tion does inertia. — Then follows the still more limited and 
latent relation (j^ figured change. This as yet is only rec- 
ognized in the more conspicuous of its manifestations 
known as the process of crystallization. It is also a mere 



78 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

complication of the preceding stage ; as figure in the 
plane of sjiace appeared a composite of quantity. Only 
tlie latent motion is here the attraction named magnetism ; 
which has, however, like the simple forms, its two opposite 
manifestations. For this is the true and simple explana- 
tiiio of polarity ; which might therefore be defined affinity 
(that is to say, modified or elective motion) with a figured 
or lateral direction.(l) From this definition it would, 

(1) Of the many somewhat novel views which I have adventured 
in the text, perhaps the last I should at the time have thought of 
claiming as original, is the polarity of all crystals, and their consequent 
emission of some description of fluid or force. The polarity, at least, 
I had supposed a conmion doctrine throughout the scientific world of 
Europe, and so evolved it without special comment, as a fact already 
familiar, only ranged, I knew, in no series of natural laws. I was 
much surprised, therefore, while these pages were passing through the 
press, on being shown, by the publishers, a work just issued (in trans- 
lation) in London ; and which has, it seems, within a year or two, 
promulgated the doctrine in question as a new discovery to astonished 
and still incredulous Europe. And I was equally delighted, on seeing 
the author's ability, to find between the rest of his investigations, as far 
as they go, and the corresponding indications of the preseiit theory, a 
coincidence quite as striking as truth itself could perhaps occasion in a 
region wholly new between independent inquiries, and of whom the 
one proceeds by pure but positive deduction, the other by as pure and 
as positive experimentation. • 

This author(of whom it is scarce creditable to own I had not heard 
before, though somewhat celebrated as a fellow-laborer of Liebig) is 
Charles Von liiechenbach. Ho is an Austrian Baron, who has con- 
verted his feudal castle into a philosophical laboratory, and who appears 
as worthy to do its honors, in this truly noble transformation, as any 
other living philosopher of Europe. We talk here, as in England, flip- 
pantly about Austrian '' barbarism." But the barbarism that produced 
Riechenbach, and Gall, and even Mesmer, is perhaps to be envied by 
the " civilization- ' of other countries. For solidity joined to compre- 
hensiveness of view, for system and circumspection in conducting the 
inquiry, together with clearness and conciseness in stating the results, 
the production alluded to would do honor to Paris iiself, and presents 
I think the finest specimen extant of inductive investigation. 

As to the discoveries it announces, I do not wonder that they as- 
tonish. The author speaks of a critic who calls the book an " absurd 
romance.'' A romance it truly is, but of the kind which Aristotle main- 
tained to have more truth in it than history ; the dim half-light which 
heralds the history of the scientific ages. Not that the contents are 
dim as facts ; they are clear and conclusive as day. But the author 
lacked a theory to bring out their full significance. Thus he is at 
a loss to determine the relation of his chief discovery of crystalline po- 
larity, or, as he terms it, the " odic force,'' to magnetism. He set- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. ^9 

for instance, follow that a general conformity of stratifica- 
tion in the internal structure of the earth should give a 
main direction to its magnetic poles, which however would 
vary more or less for different points upon the surface ; 
and also that any dislocation, latent or explosive, of this 
structure, such as are known to be constantly taking place, 
should farther comjjlicate these variations in the same 
place at different times : but this is the dark problem of 
the dipping and variation of the needle. In fine, the 
three stages of the gradation, taken in their negative and 
most characteristic aspect, may be summed up in the fol- 
lowing well known facts : — That the interference of two 
bodies in motion may produce rest ; of two emissions of 
sound, silence; of two rays of light, darkness. And I can- 
tics in this conclusion, *' that the force of the magnet is not, as 
has been hitherto assumed, single in its nature, but of two kinds, 
since to the older known one is now added a new unknown one, dis- 
tinctly different from the former — that of the crystal. It may bo 
found divested of the other property of the magnet, and in nature is 
displayed in aseparate condition by the crystals." {Physico-Fhysio- 
logical Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, &lc,, 
in their relations to vital force, p. G8.) But magnets, on the other 
hand, are never found without the Odic force ; and electricity appears 
also to stand in what is really a like relation of ascending inclusion to 
both, but which only seems to aggravate the puzzle of Uicchenbach. 
Now this series is, the reader sees, a precise and peremptory con- 
sequence of the principles applied in the text, and which class, in fact, 
these three polarities, crystalline, magnetic, and electric, as progressive 
complications of the same force ; this force moreover being, at a 
lower stage, the simple motion of gravitation. The theory would, in 
turn, receive a thousand confirmations, scarce less marked than that 
referred to, from the labours of this author, had I space to avail myself 
of his respected authority. I can cite, however, but another instance 
in a different line. 

The Baron, or rather the philosopher, has established the fact, that 
the polarity of his Odic force is " negative" in the fixed stars and the 
sun, whereas it is " positive" in the mooii and the planets. From 
this opposition between the luminous and the light-receiving among 
the heavenly bodies, the author draws the following obvious conclu- 
eion ; or rather he merely suggests it with his usual and perhaps ex- 
cessive caution : — " Perhaps we shall one day succeed, if not in decid- 
'iig» yet in raising a probability, that a comet which only sends us 
polarized light [like the moon and planets] is actually a reflecting and 
not an illuminating body," [the latter being the prevailing notion of 
astronomers, p. 245J. I beg the reader to compare this inference with 
the account of comets a page or two onward ; and of the heavenly bod- 
ies generally in the note subjoined thereto. 



80 VEBTIOES OV OIVII-T/ATION. 

not (()rl)(';ir adiliiiji;, llial, I(, socniiH to arj^nn no liii^li coiuli- 
tion oftho n(>iuM;»l plnloHopby of scioiico to Inid llirso cvi- 
(loiit iiiodilicatioiis of iIk^ hiuiio iintural law remain, not 
only nnconncc.tod, bnt llio latlor and less familiar of llicm 
<)l)jccl8 of ])U(3rilo wondor lo llio k^arnod tlu;ms(;lvo.s, 
JMit it is in grcal; part a c()nso(|Ucnco of tlio undue impor- 
tance vvliicli lias l)eeii allacluHl to certain methods, or of 
the mole-eyed and mousing li!d)its that have bcjen engen- 
dertul by this mis-estimate, as will be fiirther noted in the 
propcu- ]>lace. For the present wo resume the cluo al- 
ready become so comi)licated, and proceed into the still 
darker realms of organization and of life. 

:J. As the transition from the mathematical series of 
n^lalions to the physical was illustrated by the familiar im- 
age of "rounding the cape" of motion, the outlet IVom the 
latter and so calliul inorganic world might l)e named the 
" nor(h-west passage" to the regions of life. In fact, the 
j)hilosophic passag(5 is deemed so vastly the mor(^ dillicult 
that it is generally despaired of, or positively dtniied. 
Assunul, howi^ver, by the strong concurrence and the uni- 
form couise of the most various analogies of nature, I can- 
not hesitate, in the fuco of any weight of mere opinion, to 
believe that hero too there is no re;d discontinuity. I 
even think that the difllculty, though apparently somewhat 
greater from the more advanced complication of the sub- 
ject, must yet bo similar in nature to the revolutionary 
procedure, lo which wo just have seen reduce itself tlio 
long-])r(M(Uidtul hiatus between the so called primary and 
secondary <pialiti{\s of matter. What then was it that took 
place here '/ Simply a retroversion of the mathematical 
beries of laws, from the consideration of objects exteriorly 
and at r(\'^t, to the re-examination of them in motion and 
composition. And as this ])urpose could be really exe- 
cuted but through the virtual amdysis of their formation, 
^vhlch lies unli)lded in its various stages along the plains 
of both space and time, the course of nature, thus sponta- 
neously lollowed by Perception, nnist have been, as it 
were, a turning of the previous model i/fsidr out. Now, 



:) previous i 
of progress; 



according to the law of progression, which has been de- 
scribed as a rolling forward of the same process or series 
of processes u])on its extreme terms as an axis — tho 
on uing form of transition, and at which wo arc now ar- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. 81 

rived, should be found to consist in turning its predecessor 
outside in. And the new order would, of course, com- 
mence with the final term of the scries, which falls, we see, 
at this turn, upon the relation of figure. ]5ut this utmost 
stage of exterior or " inorganic" composition, as exempli- 
fied extremely in the class of bodies termed crystals, and 
generalized in the miscalled chemical law of isomorph- 
ism, would evidently pass, by the operation indicated, 
into a collection of cells. Here, accordingly, do we find 
the process slidden over with scarce an effort to the iden- 
tical cellular formation or tissue, which is known to intro- 
duce, and must consequently underlie, the entire " or- 
ganic" system of nature. In fact, this cellular composition 
as presentei in the lowest vegetables, is but a simple 
complication of the crystalline figure ; the conversion of 
its sides from the state of bounding a solid corpuscle to 
that of inclosing a similar cavity. But the ultimate con- 
sequences of this slight change are among the most marvel- 
lous feats of nature, quite as wonderful perhaps as the 
difference between matter and mind. In the first place the 
opposite si !es of the introverted figure must retain their 
polaric relations unimpaired, if they be not intensified. 
From this it would immediately follow that the process of 
composition must go on henceforth, not as in the mathe- 
matical mode, by mutual concretion, nor as in the physical, 
by accretion or extra-susception ; but by an attraction of 
encreiion upon both those products as a hasCy and which 
is technically termed intus-suscei:)tion. And, hence again, 
the possibility of ea:creting by the negative poles, of 
throwing off from the system of cells into free space, both 
the inassimulative or foreign particles of the fresh in- 
gredients, and the deteriorated parts of the old. But such 
an outlet was manifestly impossible where the process of 
composition went on from the circumference of the body 
towards the centre. Whereas,, by reversing its direction 
from the centre towards the circumference, as we see it 
in the centrifiigal radiations of the fungi, the operation of 
what I am obliged to term figured or polaric motion has 
opened itself the new career named organization or life. 
So profoundly just is the late definition of this phenomenon 
by Blainville, as a process of continual decomposition and 
recomposition. Yet just, I take the liberty of adding, in a 
8 



82 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

general sense ; at least if we be not careful to transpose 
the order of motlification and take the former as restric- 
tive of the latter term. For the part of " recomposition'* 
lingers still, with regard to the lower vegetables, the algae, 
lichens, &c., in the stage of general absorption. And 
that this is semi-crystalline is demonstrated e convcrso by 
the " arborescences" of the latter process (as in the frost- 
work on a window), into the exact forms of these primitive 
plants : a reciprocity, by the way, which affords another 
confirmation — a proof not the less positive for being a little 
poetic — of the graduated transition I have been endeavor- 
ing to trace. The result of the effort is, then, that the 
chain of natural development reappears without a flaw, 
but much more flexible, in the cellular tissue ; which itself 
is known to be the rudimental form of organization, that 
is to say, the figured complication of polaric composition. 
Next in order recurred the quantitative, or propor- 
tional term of the same series. Of this the eflect must be 
to draw out, as it were, the rude aggregation of the ceflular 
tissue, to turn it, by the conflict between the crossing strains, 
into a main diagonal, and finally twist it into spirally parallel 
rows ; an arrangement quite producible by the constant ten- 
dency of the several figures to adjust themselves in obedience 
to their main polaric affinities, and thus promotive, at once, 
of the force and the flexibility of the texture. And such, in 
fact, is the complication which is held to characterize the 
maturer of the two divisions of the vegetable kingdom. It 
is the organization termed " vascular" — from the new dis- 
position of the cells into vessels able to contain durably for 
suitable elaboration, and convey capillarily through the lon- 
gitudinal perforations of their party-walls, the liquid so indis- 
pensable to all the grades of composition. It is also called 
" endogenous," from another consequence of the same 
change, namely, that the recomposition is brought to pass 
along the centre of the plant, and through the double set 
of absorbent vessels at its two extremities ; even as the 
other division is termed " exogenous," from its exterior 
and opposite line of growth. Their linear recomposi- 
tion is distributed in its parallel layers by the affinities of 
quantity, by the relation of parts to their whole. There 
remains in this ascending order of the series but the law 
of nu7nhcr ; which accordingly should close the vegeta- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATUIJE. 83' 

ble form of orgaiiizalioii. Lut where do we find tliis 
imniericcd compoyition of plants ? Very obviously and 
duly, in all those higher species called trees. For a 
tree is but an assemblage of individual vegetables, which 
would perish for the most part annually in an isolated 
state.^ ^ Such is actually the case in the simply cellular and 
primitive orders. But. by the arrangement just described, 
of the cellular tissue into vascular tubes, the organism 
both ac(|uires consistency to maintain its integrity after 
death, and opens channels of connnunication between the 
vital virtue persisting in the root and the seminal germ de- 
posited in the buds. The new beings are thus enabled to 
flourish upon the summit of the old ; and the latter is in a 
sort, reanimated by the double current of vitality, and rein- 
forced by the downward growth of the colony above, which 
shoots around it an annual swathing of cognate tissue intO' 
tlie earth, to servo in turn this double oflico for succeeding 
generations. In fact this is the " exogenous" recomposi- 
tion first alluded to, and which thus results from the de- 
scc7idlng growth of a circle of individuals inserted about 
tlie vertex of one of their own kind, and obliged in this 
way to encase it with their radicating development in 
travelling along its sides to the common mother earth. 
And so the vegetable family proceeds in its composition 
by the simple superposition of numbers, of individuals. 
}>ut what then ? Why, no doubt, that the same triad of 
mathematical forms, including of course, their successive 
concretions as described, should again, on reaching the 
fundamental relation of Number, be reverted, as in the 
passage from astronomical to physical motion, into a new 
order of organic complication. Such a prolongation of 
the system is recognized in fact in a?iimal life. ' But the 
passage by transition being disputed here, as usual, I will 
try to briefly designate the more tangible of the shadings. 
On the one hand we have seen the main march of tlic 
most complex classes of vegetables towards a progressive 
individualization and condensation of the organism : the 
coarser results are familiar in the various modes of 
grafting, which already prove a high degree of vital di- 
visibility. The progression was again compounded of a 
series of co-operative efforts between the two constituent 
systems of this sort of plants, to the end of liberating their 



84 YESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOJT. 

respective processes of nutrition and motion, from thetr 
local and external dependence. This tendency we also 
marked in the soaring ramifications ; which remove the 
living vegetables from accident and earth, and raise them 
into brighter atmosphere, and freer agitation. But fur- 
ther, this change of place which is still mechanical and 
momentary, acquires permanence through the capability 
of artificial transplantation, and even progression through 
the spontaneous propagation by layers — a phenomenon 
amounting to a " short circulation" of the nutritive system, 
and constituting the first step in organic locomotion. Still 
the object of this dawning spontaniety is merely nutriment ; 
it does not involve the other element of the great law of 
preservation, it does not offer to shrink from danger or 
damage. Something of this kind is however presented in 
the famous Sensitive plant. Here the movement is 
doubtless slow, and merely retractile or one-sided ; it is 
like the simple refraction of polarity, in the more imper- 
fect and liquid crystals. But as the refraction is found 
double in the highest mineral complications, so the vege- 
table becomes vibratile in the ulterior species called oscil- 
latory. The plant, at this stage, would seem to wait but 
mere detachment from its earthy moorings in order to fill 
up the complementary section of the oscillation, and ess- 
tablish the circuit of self motion, as of digestion. Nor are 
there wanting still minuter gradations towards this su- 
preme term. But if, to the foregoing indications of a cul- 
minating convergence to specific individuality in the two 
component systems, be added the general concurrent ten- 
dency to minimise the mass, it will be sufficiently clear 
that the progression must come to close in a molecular 
unit combining both the organic elements, a membraneous 
cell, encasing a vitalized fibre. Such in fact is the exact 
character of the higher kinds of vegetable seed, and the 
reason why this part should be the best criterion of the 
plant. But it is also very nearly the definition of an 
animalcule — of which the name we see announces the 
transition just accomplished. Not, however, that I think 
these creatures at all vegetable productions ; although 
mostly found in waters charged with vegetable infusions, 
it proves no doubt an affinity of nutrition, not generation. 
But the latter is not necessary to the argument. Myprin- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMJCAL NATURE. 85 

ciple, on the contrary, confines generation within each 
species, the intermediate process of so called creation being 
the transition which I purposed to trace. So that the 
point is fully made out if the present interval be no wider 
than any found to separate two vegetable species. But 
we see it, in fact, reduced to what may be termed the an- 
gular inversion, which is now known to be incidental to 
each new revolution of our threefold series of formative 
relations. It was little more than a transposition of the 
two vegetable tissues, seeing the zoophyte presents the fibre 
as inclosing the cell. And it is the exposure on all sides 
of the more elaborated and polarized tissue which diffused 
that property of negative repulsion over the whole sur- 
face of the body, which, under the name of contractility, is 
made the character of animal life. We have seen, how- 
ever, that it is only peculiar to it in the consummation of a 
long progression towards establishing an omni-lateral po- 
larity within the system. This graduation would be con- 
firmed perhaps still more strikingly from another source, 
were not the evidence unnecessary, and the subject too 
recondite not to need a length of explanation impossible 
in this place. I allude to the three modes of procreation, 
namely, scission, gemmation, and oviparition, which were 
developed progressively in the vegetable kingdom, and 
duly pass in order into the animal series. 

Having thus effected the composition of organized 
molecules, of animated atoms, the energy called nature,, 
went on to recompose this chaos in the third and final 
order of yet recognized complications. Number, which we 
saw the last method of the preceding series, must, conse- 
quently, be the leading one in this, and accordingly we find 
this numerical stage of vital complication attain gradually 
its full development in the second or polypus species ot 
infusoria ; creatures, on this account a standing wonder 
alike to multitude and philosopher. The thing, however,. 
had, we see, its prototype in every ligneous shrub and tree ; 
saving always the characteristic inversion of type, and a 
correlatively higher grade of com^DOsition, For, in the- 
vegetable, the individuals adhere to the stock on the 
outside ; whereas, in the polypi, on the contrary, they 
are inclosed by the common substance. And this admir- 
able consequence, of our alternating series, which seems- 
8* 



86 VESTIGKS OF CIVIMZATIOK. 

to most wiilors, nii iiiicoulli, or, jit loayl, inexplicable 
contiivanro, resulls again in enabling iho envelopes them- 
selves to be strung together, until they multiply into a marine 
mountain or continent. 1 need not pursue the remaining 
forms, of measure and figure, in the other two families of 
invertebrate animals : they are recognized iu the very 
names oi' articulate and radiated : nor the higher compli- 
cation of the aggregate series in three great divisions of 
the vertebrate section. Here the continuation is long ad- 
mitted on all hands; and its general ])riiui})le and subor- 
dinate forms, seem now suiliciently illustrated to trust the 
rest to every diligent reader. I hasten then to close this 
(piite disproportionate dis(piisition, with the suggestion, that 
as the scale of the investigation miglit, on the one hand, 
be subdivided, far more minutely ihan I have been able 
hero to attempt, — might be dropjied, in fact, to the extent 
of indicating the gradation of natural species — so, on the 
other, it may be generalized to the conveniently summary 
terms of the three integral systems of organic nature. 
These, it is familiarly known, are the Vital or vascular, 
and tho Intellectual or nervous, which resi)eclively pre- 
dominate towards the extremities of the series; and the 
A^olitional or librous, which braces both into one, in the 
name of JMotion, the great agent of the whole evolution : 
so that even in the highest region ol'cieation, there will be 
thus no dilliculty in still discovering inir three mathematical 
forms of progressive complication, and in their correlative 
order of s])ecialty and eminence. For example, in the 
lowest, and nutritive department, we iind Number pre- 
dominate, in the simple accumulation of cells in the vege- 
table ; Quantity, in the extended surface of the intestinal 
canal, in the animal ; Figure, in the construction of the 
stomach. Or in the nervous system, at the other end, the 
triple relation is no less manifest, in the multiplex distri- 
bution of the ganglia, the consolidated elongation of 
the spinal chord, and the spherical figure of the brain. 
But tliis last organ, in its ultimate development, its anterior 
lobes in the human species, being held to constitute the 
utmost verge of created things, we seem to have completed 
the proposed survey of the phencmiinal world, at least ac- 
cording to the most scientific accounts of its limits These 
limits 1 accept for the jiresent, and proceed to extricate the 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. 87 

results of our arialylic measurement from the explanatory 
details of the operation. 

§ 2.3. Motion, tlien, proceeding on the basis of matter 
(whether in character of its inherent quality or as divine 
law of the Creator), has produced, in the performance of 
this great cosmical drama, the three progressive acts with 
their respective triads of scenes, which we saw divide and 
develope themselves in this order : 

Ist (Division) Number : Quantity : Figure ; 
2d " F(jrce : Mixture : Structure ; 

3d " Growth : Life : Mind. 

These popular terms are far from exhibiting with all pos- 
sible precision, either the series or the significance of the 
nine relations designed. But from a dozen others, of common 
use or abuse in the books, I take the best that now occur, 
without resort to reformation ; a convenience which for the 
present I throughout deny myself in the matter of language, 
however liberal of innovation in almost every thing else. 
And this I except, not only for the general reason that I 
would rather make use of words to pass new ideas for old, 
than old ones for new ; but especially, that to a work 
appealing wholly to facts and history, the language of 
common experience must be the most trustworthy of 
witnesses. To supply, however, as far as may be, this 
privation of a neology undoubtedly become necessary from 
the point of view in question, I must be suffered to recur 
to some additional explanation. 

The proposition is, and the proof so far evinces, that 
these several categories of phenomena are but the single 
law of motion, only reduplicated progressively from 
member to member of each of the particular scries, and 
from series to series of the general division. The identity 
is quite obscure, however, in the fundamental series ; for 
the reason before suggested, that the motion is there 
subjective, or takes place in the percipient himself. 
But the motions of the mind and senses, in taking cogni- 
zance of the external world as constituted in a given time 
and space, must, from the necessity of proceeding from 
the simple to the complex, reflect exactly the creative 
movements which brought it to that state. It is the same 



88 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

as if this last procedure w^ere panoramically to pass by, 
while Perception licltl a fixed point of contemplation. The 
difl'erence is only that between a sun-dial and a clock : in 
the former the index is stationary, and merely registers 
the sun's motions ; in the latter it is made to move over, in 
order to measure a prescribed record ; but the result is 
effectually the same in both the processes, and the artificial 
movement a true expression of the natural. Even so 
the mental motions, by which the uniformities termed 
mathematical are traced amid the actual constitution of 
nature, do but represent the fundamental operations of 
her previous course, and in their original chaiacters, suc- 
cession, and complication. AVliat other, in fact, than num- 
ber, quantity, figure, can be imagined, the successively 
primordial states of matter 1 Could even the creator of 
the theologians, who "made all things out of nothing," 
produce any thing not subject ipso facto to the first relation, 
or move it into quantity, except by aggregating individuals, 
or give it the quality of figure but by an ulterior disposi- 
tion of quantities'? If necessity may be predicated ol'any 
thing mathematical, it is safe to say that the existence and 
succession of these conditions, be the intervalsbut a moment 
or a myriad of ages, was absolutely indispensable by al- 
mighty power itself; for the thing would be a contradiction, 
which is repugnant to the power supposed. Accordingly, 
after five-and-twenty centuries of si)eculation, the analysis 
of Dalton and the imagination of Democritus, concur to in- 
dicate the stage of number as the primary state of matter. 
But is matter no where open to present and positive ob- 
servation in one or both of the subsequent conditions ? Is 
not this the true predicament of the bodies known as 
comets? and which should thus be defined a veritable 
concours of atoms, advanced from the " fortuitous" con- 
dition of mere number into the loose and lengthened tex- 
ture distinctive of the passage to Quantity; and with already 
a vague nucleus of Figure at the head, proceeding to com- 
plicate or convolve the whole mass into a planet. I do not 
remember a case of the many outstanding anomalies, where 
the facts are quite reliablc,(l) which this definition may 

(1) In addition to the more obvious, considered in the text, I have 
since collected llie followiner from Humboldt (Kosmos) ; who though the 
oiacle of scientific pragmatists, is obliged to recite them us still insoluble. 



AKALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATUliE. 89 

not include. Thus, while noting in the solar revolution 
of these bodies the numerical attraction of gravity, it ex- 



First, the fact of certain comets having several tails, in one case as 
many as six ; — a complex and most curious example of the longitu- 
dinal or lamellated formation of our second stage, remaining also in 
the " rings'' of Saturn, and possibly in the " belts" of Jupiter. Then 
the direction of the tail, which is thought to be uniformly away from 
the sun. This fact (if such it be) would of course follow from the free 
fluxion of the atomic elongation into the Hue of greatest attraction, 
that to wit, of the conjunction of the nucleus and the sun or when 
they " pull together." Or it might be determined mediately by the 
inchoate polarity of the former body, which would itself be kept, 
through the opposite pole, in a constant position towards the central 
force. And either, or at all events, both these quite concurrent expla- 
nations would farther comport with an observation of a seemingly 
opposite import, and which reports a comet of two tails, having one di- 
rectly towards the sun. For the well-known wavy motions of these 
unwieldy appendages (communicated by the efforts of the spherical 
nucleus to rotate) might be taken advantage of, by perturbation from 
some planetary body, so far as to deflect from the line alluded to the 
external lamination, and even in extraordinary cases throw it over to 
the other side. Would not this occurrence seem to have been seized, 
as it were, in transitu, in the reported case of another of those " mys- 
terious'' appearances, wherein the tails, or layers of tail, were seen at 
right angles to each other ? Still, notwithstanding these singular con- 
formities to the theory,! should not have introduced these observations 
by way of proof. Besides the meagerness of the actual materials and 
the extreme delicacy of the process, there is large extrinsic ground, I 
think, to doubt their entire accuracy. One good reason is, that some 
or other of the instances mentioned are utterly subversive of the two 
positive hypotheses which have governed successively the course of 
cometic investigation. Thus the notion that the tail is formed by a 
circumambient rush of solar light, is clearly whisked aside by the in- 
stance of introversion. That of the lateral or rectangular position, on the 
other hand, is no less fatal to the second supposition, which seems to 
think the tail to be an effluence of polarity. It was perhaps under 
this impression that the German astronomer Bessel, supposed he wit- 
nessed a tail in the very process of formation. This is the only state- 
ment I find to militate with my conjecture. But the discoverer was 
probably thinking at the moment of the " northern lights," the sup- 
posed polaric emanations of the earth. It is at least singular that so 
signal a circumstance should have been seen but by one individual in 
the case of a comet, which (being Halley's) was scrutinizingly watched 
by all the astronomers of Europe. I have never seen the report of 
Bessel, nor any other account of the subject. But I venture to affirm, 
that neither he nor any other man has ever observed the formation or 
disappearance of the tail of a comet, unless it should be upon one or 
other of the three following occasions : the relative position of the ob- 
server, the accidental perturbation of the tail, or its final retraction (as 



90 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOls . 

hibits, in the quantitative^ the cause of their oblong form. 
This I believe is at present referred to the resistance of an 
ethereal atmosphere, an entity imagined chiefly for this 
purpose. The hypothesis seems, however, at once gratui- 
tous and absurd ; the former, because the existence of any 
such substance is unknown ; and absurd, because however 
real, the subtle particles of the alleged atmosphere could 
scarcely press against a texture seen to be pervious to the 
stars beyond, and confessed by those who assume it, not 
to ofler the least obstruction to the solid masses of the 
planets or the densest bodies of our earth. The latter 
part of the objection applies to another explanation, which 
attributes this caudal appendage to the impact of the sun's 
rays. But the assumjDtion of either cause seems, after all, 
we see superfluous. 

For the tail of the comet is a natural j^roduct of the same 
universal law, in its operation upon the atomic particles 
of matter, which gave, when come long later to work upon 
organic elements, a like outline to the nervous tissue of 
the vertebral column, and to the vascular texture of the 
tree. And we may hope that the day cannot be dis- 
tant when the tadpole shape, already recognized as belong- 
ing to all animal embria, at the one extremity of the scale, 
and at the other those primordial formations called comets, 
will be understood to belong both actually and inevitably 
to the same model. Again, to this elongation is commonly 
attributed the absence of rotation in those rudimental plan- 
ets. But the true cause is the other absence of a completed 
polaric organization, of which the spherical figure is in this 
instance a concomitant, not the cause. A more real eflect 
of the oblong shape of these cometary bodies is their 
peculiar eccentricity of orbit. It is the longitudinal im- 
pulsion of Quantity called momentum, as yet predominant 
over the numerical attraction of gravity, until the latter be 

in Eake's comet) into the nucleus. The last of Humboldt's difficul- 
ties and the most mysterious, it seems, of all is, that these puzzling 
appendages exliibit a motion of oscillation. xVnd in fact this seems ut- 
terly adverse to all the theories hitherto broached, whether solar, el he- 
real, or polaric. It is on the contrary, a necessary consequence of the 
explanation now suggested, which requires the longitudinal direction, 
in its struggle of ages to reach the ellipse, to work itself through the 
two complementary and previous sections of the cone. 



ANALYSIS OF COSMIC AL NATURE. 91 

reinforced by the polarity of figure, wliich proportionably 
bends the course into an ellipse, and then a circle. It 
represents in short the original tangential or primal mo- 
tion, in its stages of transition towards the planetary shapes 
and orbits. And this tendency again explains a darker 
problem still, namely, the anticipation by particular comets 
of their periodic times of return ; this being plainly pro- 
duced by the contraction of the long diameter of their 
cycle, and no doubt accompanied by a proportional en- 
largement of the nucleus. In fine, the sequel of the same 
great law, will account conclusively for the observed fact, 
that the orbits of all the planets, our earth itself included, 
are steadily progressing towards the circular form. Does 
it not also indicate, at the other extremity of the scale, the 
quite spontaneous origin of that centrifugal impulsion the 
preternatural account of which continues to this day the 
flagrant blemish or blind side of the Newtonian hypo- 
thesis ? (1) But I am again sliding from examjiles into 
applications. To return, then, I meant to explain that the 
three relations named mathematical, are really conversant, 
like all the rest, about phenomena of motion — of motion, 
by the ideas of mind, in the logical order of conception ; of 
motion by the atoms of matter, in the chronological order 
of creation. This, however, being understood, we may 
continue, with the common opinion, to speak of them as 
relations of Position. 

(1) This indeed would be removed in part by the grand specula- 
tion of La Place. But although, if true, that admirable system might 
explain sufficiently naturally the collocation and courses of the planets, 
it seems far less satisfactory as to the process of their alleged forma- 
tion from the annular detachments of a solar atmosphere. Besides it 
seems to leave the comets at large. Both these fatal objections the 
present theory would quite avoid ; while, moreover, characterizing the 
primordially atomic state, which La Place does but vaguely describe 
as nebular. It also avoids his postulate of an original vortex ; for the 
determination, or at least the unity, of which I do not remember a 
"sufficient reason" in any of the second-hand representations of the 
system. But I will not presume to criticise the most accomplished 
of astronomers, without having myself consulted the original. This, 
however, I have no present means of doing. Meanwhile, to remedy 
the wretched want, I have looked into a late publication, professing 
to give a set account of the nebular theory. But Professor Nichols 
makes a pitiful exhibition of La Place. Nor does the scientific dignity 
of the general subject seem to fare a great deal better, amid his scan- 
dalous hash of pedantry, poetry, and piety. 



92 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

The icleiuity of the general agent is much less dubioua 
in the next department, though here its action, for tho 
most part, be ccjually unobservable. Its operations are 
recognized in the three physical relations named pressure, 
cohesion, and polarity. Tliese are also, but respectively, 
the former modes of complication, as repeated in an inverse 
order (§22), on the basis of the collective result. This 
result, we know, was figure, in its primary constitution of 
a mere quantified conglomerate of cells, such as, doubt- 
less, the nucleus of comets, the aerolites of our own atmos- 
phere, and the lower or metallic strata of the earth. But 
as the two preceding stages, atomic and elective, are thus 
enfolded, and as it were imprisoned in the convolutions of 
figure, which consist in turning motion against itself, — it is 
clear the latter must next proceed in the direc^tion of the 
antagonism. Also that the procedure, though a composi- 
tion of motion, is etfectually a decomposition of matter ; and 
further, that the latter result is brought about by the concur- 
rent action, of attraction which we saw the general type of 
motion in the former epoch, and rcj^uhion, which is its 
character in the present. Another consequence is that 
both these forces act no longer upon atoms, but now upon 
figured masses, whether largest bodies or mere molecules : 
a fact explanatory of the elasticity observed in crystalline 
substances. Accordingly, this mutual repulsion by fig- 
ure is pressure, which results in either equilibrium or 
expulsion. In the latter cas^s which is the line of progress, 
tlie structure is dislocated and the confined motion of affinity 
set free for new cohesions. Ao-ain, this net^ative or elec- 
tive repulsion of cohesion joined, as usual in the third 
form, to the opposite repulsion of the first, is, we see, the 
exact description of polarity. This, then, must have been 
a period of disruption and disorder. And accordingly it 
has left many a trace upon the face of our own planet, in 
whose interior the wa)rk of transmutation as yet goes 
fiercely on. The eft'ect is still more legible, because later, 
in the moon, a body which seems a representative of the 
second act of the creation, as the corned appeared to exem- 
plify the first. (1) A graduation ofoui restrJnl satellite 

(1) Of course the theory, which I feared at present to do more 
than mutter in tlio text, implies the moon to have been itself before 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. 93 

which would admirably account for its alleged destitution 
of atmosphere and organic existences. 

These formations in fact commenced with the next 
creation of our planet, and constitute the third series of 

a comet ; which hrought within the earth's control, after havinnr aain- 
ed the Kpheroicial ahape, would bo fitted, by the consequent capacity 
<j/ roialion, to r.ludc^ hetwecn the two forces, tfie dominant grasp of the 
sun, and would thus transfer its focus of revolution. For example, 
were Enke's comet, which now approximates the condition of form, 
and the elongation of wliose orbit also is retracted deeply v/ithin our 
system, to pass within a certain distance of Venus or Mercury, it would 
bo made (as may be yet its fate) to whirl off upon this new focus ; and 
the body itself, thus farther rounded from the actual elipsoidal figure 
and rectified from its eccentricity into the common planetary plane, 
take ever after the situation of a satellite to such planet. I need not 
say the consequence embraces the satellites in general, and not only 
these but also the primaries in turn. But leaving the reader to decide 
the coincidence, or competition of this view, with the only really phi- 
losophical theory of astronomical phenomena, I cannot, even in a note, 
omit to palliate the novelty, by applying it, not to any thing already 
deemed explained, but to the principal /tfc/« which it seems the various 
hypotheses have all abandoned in despair. 

Reverting to the order of our remarks as of our knowledge, it is a 
fact of this description, that the relative density of the moon is found 
to interrupt, in this respect, an almost regular series, and by a differ- 
ence so enormous as nearly one-half. This is commonly deemed ac- 
counted for when the exception is named a satellite — as if the some- 
what aldermanic principle that density implies dignity, did not find a 
pretty flagrant contradiction in the sun himself. Now this seeming 
anomaly would be turned into harmony as above. So also would 
another /ac< respecting the same body, namely, the absence of an 
atmosphere or at least of any liquid formation, and consequently of 
the organic life to which it is the necessary transition. These several 
peculiarities I think to be utterly inconceivable, upon any supposition 
which looked in any shape to a coeval connection between the moon 
and the earth ; while all are natural and necessary in the theory now 
suggested. It is another and still profounder of this puzzling class of 
facts which the pious conceit of our vulgar astronomers is wont to 
term " mysteries," that the period of rotation coincides exactly with 
that of revolution in this and in all the other satellites. Here no se- 
rious explanation is so much as attempted. Yet is not the conformity a 
calculable result of the conflict of forces above alluded to ; a mathe- 
matical compromise, through the intervention of a planet, between the 
previous and direct allc" *''ce of the comet to the sun and the condi- 
tion, on the other ha- ..,at it shall continue, in its future course, to re- 
volve the sail.- J it n.ade an aggre'gate part of the primary? For 
this virtual unity is no figurative, but is the literal state of all the satel- 
lites; which might well be said to be astrictoi glehcB towards the 
lord paramount of Motion. And such a result is further corroborated 
9 



94 • VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

motional complications. As the action of the former was 
by attraction and repulsion, and their effects a composition 
and decomposition, respectively ; so the closing term of 
the generic, like that of the subordinate series, must com- 

by two collateral trains of consequences, which are found equally 
transformed into facts: the one is, that the- solidified comets must settle 
chiefly about the remoter planets, and this, from a concurrence of 
obvious causes, such as distance, which by enfeebling the rival attrac- 
tion of the sun, augments their form, in this vast proportion, beyond 
the inner planets mass for mass ; then their actual and enormous excess 
of magnitude ; and above all, perhaps, their advanced j;os^i^on which 
sweeping at various intervals around the frontier regions of the sys- 
•tem, would enable them, as the condensing comet drew slowly inwards 
its long ellijise, to anticipate the interception at the very point of the 
aphelion. In exact accordance we find the satellites increase in num- 
ber from Jupiter outwards ; and what is additionally confirmative, not 
so much on the principle of magnitude as of relative exteriority and 
distance. But the profoundest contirmation of all is, that they retain 
in the same proportion, their original or conietary deviations from the 
zodiac, until in Uranus the moons revolve in all directions indiscrimi- 
>iiately. It would be curious indeed to know how the exfoliation of 
a Formative Ring could result in such an order as this stumbling-block of 
astronomers ! But how natural a consequence from the extreme debili- 
tation and more recent application of the equatorial polarity (if these 
terms be a blunder the ignorance is not mine), I say the equatorial or 
electric polarity, with which the planetary masses had through a pre- 
vious eternity been embelted by the sun, and broken gradually, through 
organization, into the main direction of his whirling orb ; as also had the 
satellites, in the joint ratio of their ages and proximity, until our 
own (to continue the metaphor) has been reined so closely into con- 
formity as to enable it to keep exceptionally its parasitic place I 
This exception brings us aptly to the other class of consequences, and 
of which the existence of the rule is thus already an attestation. In 
fact our principle seemed to say that the number of satellites should 
decrease inwardly, and generally disappear within a certain line of 
solar energy : and such is accordingly the familiar fact. Nor is the 
•earth's instance a deviation, when we first compare its single moon with 
the four attending the nearest satellited planet, and then its place at 
but a single interval within the line alluded to; while on the other hand 
it is still the third from the sun, and moreover quite the largest of all the 
lesser planets. Is there nothing in this nice coincidence with a double 
series of phenomena, of which the one is by correlation a negative 
check upon the other, and all are confessed inexplicable upon every ex- 
tant hypothesis ? 

But how would our theory explain the Asteroids, which form another 
cardinal '• mystery 1" It says that comets, on approaching the condi- 
tion of form above described, would thus concentralize their orbits 
with those of the general system ; that this was possible but by instal- 
lation as either planets or satellites; that the latter form being imprac- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. 95 

bine both the pah's of properties in one and the same system. 
This system consists of figure compounded first by figure, 
then drawn out or stratified by quantitative affinity, the 
final complication being again numerical composition. In 
short it is the solidified and many-sided, or rather mul- 
tiplex, form which yields the corpuscular element of or- 
ganic being. Proceeding, then, upon this basis — which, 
may be termed the morphological, as its periodic prede- 
cessors were named molecular and atomic, — the present 

ticable within a certain line, the former must take place of course, out- 
side it ; and that consequently a large collection of those later forma- 
tions of matter would be found to coast at quarantine, so to speak, 
along the frontier of inhibition. And it farther follows that such 
bodies, notwithstanding their state of planets, would in their orbits oft- 
en exhibit a remaining eccentricity, indicative of the obHqne path by 
which they reached the disputed territory, and escaped the serfdom of 
so many of their fellows that entered edgwise or elsewhere the system. 
How far these deductions correspond to the asteroids of observation, 
the reader \v\\\ find it easy to determine. In fine, the whole might be 
compared to the late European'' balance of power," in which the outer 
provinces of the Roman Empire act as rival centres of subordination, 
retained, however, in their ancient orbits by the subtle influence of su- 
perstition ; and the inner, like the lesser planets in closer vicinage to 
the sun, continue isolate and enslaved to the so called throne of the 
CfBsars ; while the neutral ground, left independent but insignificant 
between both tyrannies, is the region of the obscure asteroids, whi'ih 
might thus themselves be called the Swiss Cantons of the celestial 
system. 

And the planets, how came they from comets? But I must here 
close, or give this note the relative prominence of a lady's postcript. 
Besides the planets are explicitly included in the foregoing. For the 
present, however, the theory is offered as no more than a conjecture. 
And a wild one it may be called by certain pretenders to philosophy, 
who take their own pedantic barrenness for scientific sobriety, and are 
of that class of minds that would have seen in Kepler, had he stopt 
at the 19th guess, but the ravings of a scholastic or a lunatic And yet, 
the twentieth, which made him immortal, must have seemed the least 
likely of all ; and so was born of the long elimination of his errors. In 
science in fact, no less than religion, the formal letter killeth and the 
spirit alone giveth life. By its indulgence however, in this particular, 
I was chiefly anxious to suggest the truth, that our astronomy has still 
to undeigo a fundamental reformation — one by which, I venture to 
say, that even the great law of gravitation may sink in turn to the 
second place, into which the laws of Kepler had been retruded by the 
discovery of Newton. 

1 beg leave to add, however, that the direction is not thought likely 
to be quite the same with that of the theory just promulgated from 
the Christian centre of infallibility. 



^6 VESTIGES 01' CIVIM/.ATIOX. 

cycle of motion, beginning necoss;\rily willi Number, pro- 
tlucetl the elnss t)l" phenomena thence ilenominated trans- 
formation. This lUictuation of forms, more familiarly 
termed Growth, is efiecteil by the coniplicntion of po- 
larity called electricity. This electrical })olarity, result- 
ing from a su])erposilion of mngnets, has at once the lateral 
and a vertical direction ; the latter being of course the 
leading one, as is "witnessed in the station of plants, 
which is always upright to the plane, not of the soil but 
the horizon. What this electric or organic mode of mo- 
tion may become, in the remaining complications of Life 
and Intelligence, I must postpone for the former reason, if 
no other, to pursue. The conception grows here too 
strange and too obnoxious to the deepest ])rejudiccs, to ex- 
pect a careful or a candid consideration of the meaning, in 
our utter absence not only of sjKice to enforce, but of the 
very language to exjnet-s, it, llilherto the popular termi- 
nology seemed sullicient for the main purpose of historical 
confirmtition ; for the descrijitions, if somewhat novel, were 
so iar verilied by ])rinci}>les which had been recognized, 
under other titles, however isolately or imperfectly. AVith 
respect to even the terms in question, the reader is now 
aware that they are but progressive compositicnis of their 
accumulated predecessors, by means respectively of the 
relations of quantity and figure. The efVect may be, in the 
first case, to insulate the organism, which in the vegetable 
holds by one of its main poles to the earth ; and thus to com- 
plicate transformation by transplacenient or locomotion ; and, 
in the figured stage, to superadd the insulation of the ner- 
vous system and set Perception, whieh had been also rooted 
by mere sensation to the plane of /"/w^', free to Hash along the 
past and future as memi)ry or imagination. In fact this 
final modilication of electrical motion, this circular or self- 
controlling and intellectual polarity, is recognized in all 
that is not due to ignorance or imposture in the pheno- 
mena called Animal Magnetism. For the cures, convul- 
sions, clairvoyance, &c., of this still quack-ridden district 
of nature, would, none the less be real facts, though all 
resolved into imagination : that is to say, the imagination 
either of the patient alone, made to react upon his own 
system by ]n-emonition of the change to ensue, and producing 
a concentrated direction and consequent disturbance of the 



ANALYSIS OF COSMIC AL NATURE. 97 

magnetic circulalioii; or, also, the more powerful imagina- 
tion of the magnetizer, directed actively to the same end, 
and put, as the phrase is, in communication with the for- 
mer when thus passively disposed, and pointed, as it were, 
to receive the discharge. 

§ 24. But be the mode of action in this or the other 
stages what it will, the foregoing hasty characterization of 
the effects, the phenomena, seems abundant to elucidate 
the essential elements of the analysis, namely, a unity of 
agency, and a uniformity of progression. The scientific 
results of these joint principles will be identified in the 
proper place, and will prove to be quite conformable, as 
far as they are yet known. I may here remark, concern- 
ing the residue, including the relations named. Life and 
Intelligence, that they too, are in their own nature, as 
much a matter of computation, as the properties of a crys- 
tal or the powers of a machine. The difference is merely 
a question of purview in the Perception, of time in the 
progress, of mankind. And there is no one error perhaps 
by which both these tendencies are so liable to be arrested 
as the narrow practice, which still prevails among even the 
most forward representatives of science, of cutting up the 
works of nature into absolute divisions, said to be acces- 
sible, some to different sorts of certitude, and some to> 
none. It is grown a vulgar reproach to Aristotle that his 
theory of " violent motions" delayed for two thousand* 
years the cultivation of mechanics. Yet, in face of this 
flippant criticism and even of the warning example which 
It denounces, the same empirical illusion is repeated by 
the critics themselves, in the quite analogous exclusion of, 
for instance, the " moral motions," from the possible ap- 
plication of mathematical rules. Accordingly both these 
motions, the " voluntary" as w^cll as the " violent," or 
rather their fancied exemption from the universal domin- 
ion named, will no doubt be laughed at in the same cate- 
gory,^ by no distant posterity. 

This analysis I pretend to be not only correct, but also- 
complete, as a chart of all the recognized existences of na- 
ture. There is not, I think, a single phenomenon, from 
the most material of facts to the wildest of fancies, from the 
fall of a stone or the floating of a nebula to the vision of a 
maniac or a prophet, that is not comprised in one or othei 
9* ^ 



98 VESTIGES OV OU ll.l/.ATIOK. 

these three siinmniiY tlivisioiis, aiul sjH\'itu\l in tlie sub- 
ordinate partition. Vov niuniiestlv thtne is iu>llung which 
can he known or even iniagineil t>t tilings, save either 

As they arc in relation to each other or tlieniselves in 

space ; 
As they ht'aK'fic \n relation to each other or thiMiiselves 

in time : 
As they si/crttJ in relation to each other in time antl 
space. 
Phenomena 

Ot* CO existence simply; 
Of co-occurrence siiccessively ; 
Of co-operation ituletinitely. 
Ixehitions 

Ofcomposilion directly ; 
or decomposition indirectly ; 

Of recompositiiMi and decomposition conjointly ami 
contimially. 
Laws : 

or organ or state ; 
Of functiiMi or change ; 

Of state and change harnu>nically, of function and 
organ progressively. 
TNIotion complicating Matter under the successive condi- 
tions 

Of atoms, by gravity ; 
Of molecules, by affinity ; 
Of corpuscles, by polarity. 
And these three orders of complications, laws, relations 
or phenomena, are not only each of them snbdivisionally, 
but all of them collectively, both cliaracterized and com- 
prehended by the three mathenratical formulas, of number, 
quantity, and ligure. 

§ 25. In view, then, of this grand li>gical harmony and 
completeness, it seems unnecessary to task our space with 
historical confniuatiou, at least in advance of the general 
veritication. Otherwise I might refer, for instance, to the 
now acknowledged tendency of the mathematical sciences 
to prove a universal method ; a great fact, of which the 
foregoing principles involve the rigorous demonstration. 
But these principles involve another fact no less extensive 
or important ; they indicate the universal basis of a classi- 



▲VALYSIfl OF COHMICAL NAll ItK. 99 

ficalifiTi truly natural, and ripplicjil^lo allkr; to all Kcicncc«, 
all artH, and aJ) ohjoctH. 'J'ruo, it in hut indicated ; nor 
havo 1 ifjtond^.'d rnoro, in either tljih or the otJier hrunchos 
of t}je expohitir^n. My firf.t dewire ih to he quite a««Tjred 
Jjovy far i rnay, or rjr^t, he right, hr^fore lahoring j^erhapH 
to irnpoHO upon other« and even ujjou rnyneir, hy tJje illu- 
fliou of cither c/itical corilrant or Byrnrrjetricaj develop- 
ment. And the prcKcnt wketch, I heg to rej^eal, ih k* pt 
up in general to the hare rerjuiHitew of thiw nelf Kuntaining 
and KcJf-dfjrjying puqjof^e. At the Harne time it may ho 
claimed, with rcbpeet to the point hefore \y-,, that the 
greater ex}>lieitneHH, rnadr; indinpenHalJe hy hoth the na- 
ture arid noveify of moht of the vif;wH, rnuKt leave the 
reader himHolf preparf.-d tr> tent the app]jcatir;n Ku^/gentcd! 
II(; will ahovri all dif;eern in the pf.-rempfory graduation of 
our j>rogreBHive Kerien and the compound evrJution of the 
pn^groHhion, together with the endless diverBity of their 
proportional comhinationf-;, at leaBt a clue to the true defi- 
nition of a natural Bpecie«; a prerequiBite, the want of 
wliich iH well knowri to he the great defect in the various 
special t'laBhificationH, for iriBtance, of hotany and zoology. 
Ah to the general or encyclopedic attempts, tliey have 
been for the rnoHt part quite prepoBterouB, from the gene- 
ological tree of I'orpliyry to the HchemcB of JJacon and 
Dalemhre, and along to the more elahorate plans of Jicn- 
tham and Amj><;re. Arnr^ng much pedantry and Home pue- 
rility the last of thene writf.TH alonrj preheritB a fair approach 
to the natural dihlrihutirm. 'J'he rcht conceive the tree of 
knowlrjdge aH if it grew hy tl/e hranchoB, not the roots : fr>r 
they plant it in the air of Mind, instead of tracing it in 
the soil of nature. Wliereas the order ahove delmeated 
evinces the very contrary, and exhihits quite Kpontaneously 
the evolution of Percejilion as the final t(irm of its nine 
Btages of creatifjn. 

It is therefijre tjo si-s^ signal attestation of exact truth, 
perhaps, to have supplied a reason for the instinctive re- 
jection, one after another, of these several systems. As a 
flhort instance, I prefer to mention the earliest essay of 
them all, and which is rrjected with most vehemence, hut 
as I think with least reason ; 1 allude to the ten catego- 
ries of Aristotle. For this fixmous summary of all cx- 
iBtences is substuntially coincident with our novenary par- 



100 VKS'lIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

thioii of pliciiomenal nature. Even the sliglil discrepancy 
in number is but an oversight of repetition, in rank'ng 
Relation as a special category, whereas it is the generic 
character of all. For all are necessarily Jl^og rt with re- 
gard to mind if not to matter. In the remaining nine, 
however, the coincidence is but substantial : the arrange- 
ment is inexact and the designations not duly explicit, the 
latter being moreover mystilicd or mutilated in translation. 
For example, the last in order, usually rendered in Latin 
Habitus, had been travestied, throughout the middle ages, 
to mean the habit or garb of the object. The true im- 
port is now evident, even in the transition of the term 
habit to denote the instinctively recurring affections or pro- 
pensities of the human mind ; and these we found in fact 
to be the final order of substantive relations. Equally 
proper and profound was the Aristotelian position of Ex- 
istence at the head of the catalogue. For this is the cor- 
rect translation, in the sense of Ninnhcr, of individuation ; 
not "substance," as it is commonly rendered, which is a 
real synonym with matter, and thus excluded as the un- 
known substrate of all phenomena. Then follow Quarir 
tity ar.d Quality ; the one exact to the very name, and the 
other agreeing w'lih figure, the type and fountain of most 
qualities. Ivclation being removed as superfluous, the en- 
suing category is Action, which fits jirecisely our co-ordi- 
nate term force. Nor does Passion, in the generic sense 
of receptivity or rather susception,bear a less remarkable 
correspondence to affinitij. But here, on entering upon 
the region of organic complication, the author becomes 
still more vague in his designations. The parallels to our 
polarity, growtli and Jfe respectively are termed Place, 
Time, and Situation. Yet even in these the correspon- 
dence may be easily deciphered. For instance, polarity — 
or to give it the more familiar and narrow name of mine- 
ralogy — is known to be pre-eminently a science of location ; 
and that growth takes place in time is a vulgar truism. 
But besides the direct analogy, there is also a metaphori- 
cal : it was natui'al the author of the Categories, restrict- 
ing himself to popular nomenclature (as I have ventured 
to do myself but with greatly improved materials) should 
generalize the kinds of phenomena implying an expanse 
of space or time by a synecdoche of the containers for 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. lOl 

the contained. And as to Situation, it refers, no doubt, by 
a like principle of pre-eminence, to ihe more complex 
groupings of animal organisms : for these are the natural 
objects in which system is the most prominent, and situation 
is the most prominent attribute of system. The closing 
category, named Habit, has already been adjusted. The 
correspondence, I therefore repeat, is substantially exact, 
at once in number, order and import, and the fact is not 
more curious than corroborative. Nor would it be less 
the latter though it were certain that the author's notions 
did not go to the full extent of the foregoing interpreta- 
tion. On the contrary, it would only speak the force of 
nature and of truth, which is still a better test than the 
words of even Aristotle. It is clear in fact that he saw 
nothing of their logical progression, and only meant an 
enumeration of independent classes. But it is not the 
authority of this philosopher that I covet in behalf of the 
theory ; although there is, I own, no human suffrage of 
which I should be prouder in any subject above the men- 
tal horizon of his age. It is that of experience brought 
to testify through the philological basis of his profound 
analysis. In this his habitual procedure Aristotle was the 
first, and for his epoch remains the strictest of positive phi- 
losophers. Yet the trait is scouted by English writers, who 
will swear by the same rule if only you call it Baconian or 
ifiductivc ; as well as by their Germanized or Platonized 
opposites. Mr. Whewell, among the latter, speaks con- 
temptuously of the Stageryte as authenticating his main 
positions with the phrase " we say," " we say." He does 
not distinguish that in treating the subjective phenomena 
of Mind (and Aristotle does not use it in his works of 
Natural History), the formula is a mere ecjuivalent to the 
mductivc " sesame"~it is the fact. The inferential ulti- 
matum of Mr. -W. himself, is, I conceive, I conceive. What 
then IS the difference ? That Aristotle appeals to the com- 
mon experience of ages and nations as registered in gene- 
ral language. And the Cambridge Doctor sets up the 
conceptive capacity of a clergyman as the model of all 
truth and the measure of all creation. (1) 

(1) I find in a pliilosopher of opposite principles and at least equal 
ability, a similar strain of remark upon tlic categories of Aristolle. Mr. 



102 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

§ 2(). Of llie foregoing short survey, coricliictccl on a 
tlifibrout priiR-ij)lo, I liavo si ill to ntld a confirmation the 
most conclusive perliaps of all. At the close of the last 
chapter it was avowed that if the niimrs develoj^ment be 

Mill, in his compilation on Logic, pronounces the enumeration to be 
both " redundant and defective. iSoine objects are omitted, and otliers 
rejteatcd several times under different heads. * * That for in- 
Btance could not be a very comprehensive view of the nature of Rela- 
tion which could exclude action, passivity and local situation from that 
category. The same observation applies to the categories of Quando 
(or position in time,) and Ubi (or position in space); while the distinc- 
tion between the latter and Situs is merely Verbal. The incongruity 
of erecting into a summnvi genus the class which forms the tenth 
category is manifest." {Si^stem of Logic, ch. 3. § 1st). Now to me it 
is much more manifest that the author's conception oihah it us siwovBsiWl 
of the scholastic and traditional travestie, as in fact lie bol rays elsewhere, 
for e.\an)j)Ie in his doctrine of '' Kinds," a lingering remnant of the 
mystic "substances" of tlie old logic. lie probably understood it (for 
lie docs not declare his meaning) in the physical sense of possession. 
He surely could have had no notion (nor do I know of any writer who 
has) of the supreme compreiiensivencss assigned the term in the 
text, and which all unconsciously has made the Ex^tv (the tenth cate- 
gory) with its equivalents, the radical or " auxiliary" instrument of 
universal conjugation, in all languages arrived at a certain stage of 
development. The strictures on the other categories seem equally un- 
fortunate. The solo '• redundancy" of Aristotle, as elucidated in the 
text, consists in ranking the supreme genus of relation as a species. 
To this, however, Mr. Mill takes no objection ; his con)p!aint is, oil 
the contrary, that the confusion is not " worse confounded" by hud- 
dling several others under the same superfluous head. The criticism 
then recoils upon the maker with compound interest. For if Aristotle 
confounds the genus with the species in a single instance, Mr. Mill 
would confound the species with the genus, in live or six. The latter 
error implies, however, a proportionate advance in the extension of 
the true fundamental character of Relation. The product of twenty- 
three centuries of aiklilional experience. 

]jut tl>o list of Aristotle is charged to be also " defective." And this, 
if founded, would constitute a still more serious derogation, both from 
the scientific credit of that classification in itself and the evidential 
value for which 1 cite it in the text. Rut the imputation is no less, or 
rather it is more, unfounded than that of redundancy. The alleged 
omissions INlr. Mill proceeds to state in the same passage; *• On the 
other hand the enumeration takes no notice of any thing besides sub- 
stances and attributes. In vvliat category are we to place sensations, 
or any other feelings or states of mind ; as hope, joy, fear ; sound, 
smell, taste ; pain, pleasure ; thought, judgment, conception and the 
hke ? Probably all these would have been placed by the Aristotelian 
school in the categories of actio and jiassio ; and the relation of such 
of them as are active to their objects and of such as are passive to their 



ANALYSIS OF COSMIC AL NATURE. 103 

in fact a result, as explained, of the constitution of external 
nature, it would follow that the latter must exhibit a grad- 
uation in strict contormity with the assigned Principles 
and Processes of the former. We are now prepared to 

causes, would lightly be so placed ; but the things themselvrs, the 
feelings or states of mind wrongly. Feelings or states of consciousness 
are assuredly to bo accounted among realities, but they cannot be 
reckoned either among substances or altrihules.'''' Here is a distinc- 
tion which I must bo permitted to call extraordinary, at least in a 
thinker of the unmystical maturity of Mr. Mill. Feelings, emotions, 
thoughts not to be reckoned among attributes! What then is the de- 
finition of ihis generic term ? Does it not, in any other than some 
pedantically technic sense, comprise every thing that may be supposed 
to inhere in or be attributable to a substance? And are not the 
mental phenomena in question even pre-eminently in this predicament? 
Mr. M. is forced to confess it, as far as their relations are rendered pal- 
pable by the juxtaposition of an exterior object or cause. But if these 
objective rclatioi s be attributes, why not the subjective relation as 
well, which every feeling bears essentially, or rather is, to the feeling 
substance I And as to the tertium quid which Mr. Mill calls the 
" things themselves,'' it is a category which should be left to pass 
away with the schoulmen. So that if this be the only blank in the 
scheme of Aristotle — namely, that he recognizes no real existences 
"besides substances and attributes" — the omission seems but another in- 
dication of that profound genius, which, by a peculiarly strict adherence 
to nature and experience, was enabled to forestall typically, as it were, 
the developments of latest ages ; as witness the numerical complete- 
ness of the Categories. But complete, in fine, or not, I must admit 
that its concurrence with the present hufnble essay is, in this particu- 
lar, entire. Nay, I have ventured to go farther, and merge even these 
two divisions in the single positive formula of ii^chttion. 

Were this note not already long, it might be also useful for other ends, 
to compare the results to which the contrary principle has conducted 
Mr. Mill, and to which Mr. Mill, among the higliest English authorities 
in matters of Logic, may have conducted many readers and even 
writers. Briefly, liovvever, here is the substitute, for what he calls (we 
have seen how warranlably) the " abortive" classification of Aristotle. 
— " 1st. Feelings, or States of Consciousness. 2d. The Minds which 
experience those feelings. 3d. The Bodies or external objects which 
excite them, &c. 4th, and last. The Successions and Co-existences, 
the likenesses and unlikenessesbetwern feelings or States of consciouB- 
ness." (Ibid. ch. 3. § 15). Now this is a project veritably both redun- 
dant and defective, and moreover incongruous and obscure. It is re- 
dundant, with a vengeance, inasmuch as the three first categories are 
positively reducible to one ; or, more properly speaking, two of them 
are not categories at all : tlie Mind experiencing and the Body excit- 
ing are but abutments to the relation calhid feeling, and being thus es- 
sentially inseparable, could not be classified distinctly, and being ab- 
solutely unknowable, should not be classified at all. To the very re- 



101 Vi:si'UiKS OK CMVll.l.'.VriON. 

put thoso two brnnrlios ot' l\\o l\\cov\ lo (his Iryinj;- tost, 
whioli. it' siUH'OssliiI. must itMuKu- r;u'l> oi' thorn ;i tliMuou- 
strjition t)riho otlior. 

Passing" ovor, as ahtvulv i>l»vioiis. tlu> tuunorioal ooiii- 
ci»loiu'o lu^twoon Poiot^ption Nvitli its tliroo juini'ij>U\s 
autl uino prooossos ot' iutoUoiMiou. aiul Motion witli its 
ihroo opooljs, anil niut' oiiiors oi' Violation, my low re- 
marks will iliroot altontion to iloonor loaturos ot* tl\o com- 
|>ariso!». Ti> i;ivo l)io issut* its lair ailvatitaj^o. howovor, 
It is jMO|u>r lirst to loiniiul tlio ro:ulor. that tlu^ CV^smioal 

Yt>isc> of this oriulo st>paration of unity, thi> fourth tMlooforv is iucon- 
iiiuons in i»uttin!j opposite thinsi>i toj^olhor ; ("or wliat can ho nioro 
ilirootly so tliuu liilvouoss unit I'nlikonoss, tho lattor hoiiio- moroovor a 
«(»;i-existoni'o * 'V\\\> itofootivouoss is !unv too ludioronsly palpahh^ to 
r»Hjuirt> proof. In s!»ort tl\o tlunij is tu» C^tassitioation, no Chaiactfri' 
Ziithn ut all. Ami this oomos ot" Mr. Mill's atiilition ot' •* oxisttMioos 
in tluMtjsolvos" to iho list of Aristotlo, whioh aro d«sio;natoit all lohi- 
tionally. 

Aov'oriiiui^Iy whoro tlioso " suhstaiuial" iVolinj:^ olido aftorwarvls 
into /<<('.' .N\ on translatitiij tho pioton^hHl Catoijoiios ij\to Proilioahlos, 
the cataloj'uo ru»\s oloarly and oonsistontly onoii^h as lollows: 
♦» F..vistonoo,(.\>-oxistouoo, 8oiiuonoo, fansation, Kosomhlanco." Tlio 
roilnntlancy indood rotnrns, and at tl»o two oxtronntios. 0( lOxistonco, 
1 ropoat, wo can know nothing that is not inolndoil in C\>-oxistonco ; 
mul rosonihlauoo is tho protlioativo lorin ot" Ivolation, anil so is ooniniou 
to all phononiona, nor propor to any oato^ory. TluTi* roinain, thon. Co- 
t\xistvM»i'o. SiMpionoo or ordor in tinio ;^.as tho anthor othorwiso oxpross- 
osit"* and Causation. Now horoavo tho ihro(> oiMiorio ordorsot"niy sorios, 
n\u\ which woro nainod, I think, nioro systomatioi^lly, Co-cxintfiicf, 
Co-ocnirrrucf, ('(»-(»/»f"rii/ioN. And tho Aristotelian C\'itOi;orios aro, 
no donht. snsoojitihlo ot' a liUo division. 

lloro, thou, is a vory curious and suj^jjostivo stato o[' l"ai'ts. \Vo soo 
two al(oin[>ts at a loijioal analysis of phonomonal Natnro ; ono tho 
oarliost and tho othor tho latest on rooord, and sp.uinino[ with thoir iu- 
torval tho soiontitu" history o\' tho raoo. Tlio t'onuor roi^ninii- for twenty 
centuries as tho dooaloouo o( philosophy, hut treated hy tho latter 
as too absurd to merit rel"utaiion ; and yet hoth hut kin divisions, 
alike iniperl'eet.of the s;une aijjjrey;ates — the older nuu'o speeilie. nioro 
pyeeiso hut uneonneeted. tho other jieiteral to tho excess of eont"oundinj; 
thiujis distinct and eoniprisiuji' thiuj^s itnpertiiu>ut. hut evidently siropinsj 
for the triple division of hiiihest kinds which should link tho crowd of 
tho cateo^ories to t!»e unit of elassitieation ; and tiuaily hoth concurrinjr, 
tho one with the Specitlc.aud theother with the tieueric, series of uiy 
schente. A scheuu^ e.\elndinii-. hy the couihination of both, the special 
det'ects of each, and i\»oreover oravluatin^' aiul rationali/.in>i- their uiero 
enumerations, upon a piineiple no loss negloeted hy tho nuulrrn 
than by the at\cient anthers, the iireat law of universal progressiou. 



A:;AI.YhIS OK CO.-MICAI- NATl J:i:. 100 

atialyHJH l>f)irig of courMO proHfinf.cd in ihr; Kt;igo fjf *ci- 
encc, JtH corrf!Hpori{l<;rir;o to llio Mofital bhould \i(i Koufflit 
CKjifjcially in tlio t.liirvl ,Scrif5H, whore alono l?(;rr,f;pf.ioM 
gaifiH liir; ajL^c oi' JO:anon arifl t.lio a[)j)n;}ionHion of natinal 
Law. Hut, a.H Uio op(;rationH of tlio hoIo fariilfy liad bocn 
tlio Harno in tlio two anterior, arul niorcly diffonjd in pro- 
vX'A'A'itij^ n[)on <^|ijality and Itelation, v/c mi^^lit <;x{)Oct the 
rnontal Mcfiomo to lit ifH rnundano countor[>art throughout, 
only more or Ickh remotely or rcprcHenfatively. Jt iH only 
rofjuiHite to HU[)erad(l to the decree of er>rifr>rmity in tljirt 
rcjHpect, an allowance a fortiori fr)r the dillenMiee bf;tweeri 
the full grown man and tin; youth or child in whom the 
adage 8ayH bo is enfolded. Or perhaps the thing will hrj 
counlrnvailed in evidence, by the greater .simplicity oS' 
the primary terms. 

Tfow(;ver, fjur diagram of tin; mental dcvelopmf;r»tH ex- 
hi})itH, in tin; infant Sf^ricH, tlif; tlircjc; ProceKHCH of Sensation, 
Memory, J magi nation ; and tli(; tahlr; of natural lawH prf3- 
HontH, ifi itH firHt arifl fundamental order, the three relations 
of Numlxjr, <^^uantity, and I^'igure. Ih there not already, 
between theru; two HoricH, a r:onfbrmity of f;haract(jr which 
nothing but the* moit eH,4<;ntial correlation could exp'ain If 
I>y referring to the curHory d(;Hcriptif>n of bf>th the Hidew 
(§§ 14 and 2'^), nketched entindy irrespectively of each 
other, it will 1)0 found, on the one hand, that Perception 
iw Haid to j)rocecd in the Htage of SenMation, l^y a mere 
HuccoHHion of points, or tho relation of individuation, of 
Number; in Memory, by aHHOciation, by cohesion, by 
Quantity; in Imagination, }>y grouping, by form, by Fig- 
un; : and, on the other liand, that such were exactly the 
creatieve mod(ds of Motion. Thus far tlie fitness, term to 
term, must have impnjssed itsfilf spontaneously ujjon even 
the l(;ast attentive f>f the readers. l>ut if less obvious, it is 
only iKjcause it is mon; complex, in the second Series, where 
IJ.ellection, Al^straction, (jeneralization may Ik; seen to 
tally, perhaps more; remarka}>ly, witli Force, Aflitjity, and 
J*(d;xrity — (tho two latter being the modes of Motion 
prop(;r to Mixture and Structure). So true is this of the 
foremost analogues that tlie natural law offeree remained 
unknown to the human race up to the last or pievious 
century, when it was first /^/^rccf/yxvi, as shown above, by a 
ripened csffort of refliecticjn. A pretty good jjroof of close 
10 



106 VESTIC.es of CIVILIZATIOxV. 

connection between the mental process and the natural 
law. In fact, as Force — or to speak more properly, more 
positiy e]y jn-essure — was described to be Motion opposed 
to, and arresting itself; so Reflection is but Perception 
self-confronted and self-controlled. Both the agents hav- 
ing thus turned the epochal angle of the series, their co- 
incidence became clearer in Attraction and Affinity, which 
are processes, almost identical, of separation and selection. 
Nor does Generalization fail of an equal correspondence 
to Polarity : the former is a re-concretion of the quality 
abstracted to the like quality in other objects, with a rejec- 
tion of the unlike, and ending therefore in the establish- 
ment of two opposite principles ; the latter, the crys- 
tallization of kindred molecules, and finding a similar 
consummation in two opposite poles. I forbear to pursue 
the comparison into the third and still more complex 
Series, not having space for explanation or palliation. 
Moreover, it seems superfluous, since this, in both progres- 
sions, was seen to be a like compound of the two preced- 
ing Series, and that the sums of equal things will be 
conceded to be equal. To this safe conclusion I will 
therefore add but the simple indication — That Reasoning, 
in the sense of syllogism, is a due superposition of Num- 
ber upon generalization, a development of properties from 
a principle ; while Growth is a like superposition of Num- 
iber upon polarity, a development of particles from the 
great magnet of the earth. That Comparison on the con- 
trary, being a superposition of Affinities, is an e?^ve]opment 
of objects in a cycle or classification ; even as (animal) Life, 
which was seen to be a superposition by assimulations, is 
the envelopment of polarities into a circuit. That Method, 
being a superposition by Figure upon natural law, is a 
cowvelopment (if I may use the term) of the various ob- 
jects and their relations as appertaining to a triangular 
inclosure while the science is particular, but expanding, 
with the consolidation of special sciences, into a sphere ; 
and that intellect or Perception is a like convelopment or 
convolution of the principles and propensities of the indi- 
vidual percipient, his conflicting polarities, both circular 
and tangential, into the spherical battery called the brain. (1) 

(1) I freely own that, touching these extreme terms of the cora- 
jplication in Life and Mind, or rather the precise combinations of po- 



ANALYSIS OF COSMICAL NATURE. lOt 

Or, to designate the operations in the aspect of mere facts^ 
we may say that Reasoning is a continuous transforma- 
tion of syllogisms, Comparison a continuous transformation 
of classes, Method a continuous transformation of arts ; 
and on the other hand that Growth is a constant transfor- 
mation of parts. Life a like transformation of positions, and' 
Perception a still more rapid transformation of points of" 
view. 

§ 27. Nor is this nice conformity — numerical, charac- 
teristical, in short causal — between the aggregate powers 
of Perception and the aggregate products of Motion, be- 
tween the scale of knowledge and the scale of nature, 
more exact in the specific than in the generic terms of the 
division. For the three Scries of the Mental diagram 
were seen to proceed respectively upon Resemblance, 
Difference, and composition of both into Uniformity ; and 
the three epochs .of the Cosmical, to consist in the like 
order, of Composition, Decomposition, and Recomposition. 
But the most singular conjuncture of all, perhaps, is the- 
presence of Perception at once at the head of the former 
scale in the capacity of general agent, and at the end of 
the latter in the character of general result. This indeed 
is implied in the universally received doctrine, that man is 
the highest and latest production of nature ; but its fullest 
consequences are little understood. And whoever fathoms 
them, will do more perhaps to solve that problem of prob- 
lems, the mode of intercourse between matter and mind, 
than has been accomplished by all the j^rophets and philoso- 
phers of the earth. For the present occasion, however, we 
are only concerned with the following corollaries : That 
Perception is still but Motion continuing its complications,, 
from the sphere of physical creation into that of mental' 
conception, and is thus the hinge or articulation, as it 
werO; by which the scheme of the latter Processes is 
turned backwards, and adjusted, point by point, to the- 
cosmical programme. That, in consequence of this in- 
verse order (itself a result of the natural tendency to 

larities that should produce them, my meaning is at present very far 
from clear, even to myself. And yet I know that I have a meaning; 
that it is logically involved in my statement ; and is such as (perhaps 
within half a century) will set the name of some distinct enunciator- 
side by side with, if not superior to, that of Newtoa. 



108 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

establish the supremo electrical circuit we call kuowletlge), 
the most simple of the Mental processes, must liml itself 
in extreme contrast with tho most comj^lex of the physical 
relations. Tluit to the ellbrt to surmount this obstacle, and 
the inducement to evade it presented by the lesser diffi- 
culty of the simpler grades, is due eventually tho develop- 
ment, step by step, of the other Processes, until the last of 
them or Method had seized the primal law of Number. 
That this goal was however reached but through two abor- 
tive surveys, made successively of the whole ground by the 
two preceding Series, — the foremost of these triad Pro- 
cesses conducted by Imagination and moving, upon Pesem- 
blance, in the upward order ol'the scale of nature ; the other, 
re-descending, upon the ;/c^Y?//rc resemblance of excluding 
Diderences, and under the like guidance of its leading 
term which is Generalization; and both circuits, with that 
of Method, going, we see, to constitute a queer analogy 
to the contrasted combination of three different conduc- 
tors, by means of which a galvanic circuit produces, in a 
liieless body, the mechanical operations of tho nervous 
system. That, in fine, whatever be the ultimate cause, 
this grand development of Perception, hi its reactive prog- 
ress of ages and races over nature, must be conceived in 
its collective results as a sort of counter but concordant 
creation, of which the organism is what I call Society and 
the results Civilization. 

It will moreover be remembered that these several 
conclusions, with a multitude of others which it is needless 
to anticijnile, have already been established u}>on other and 
independent grounds. Here tlien is a complication of 
concurrences so vast and various that the thing may look 
not unlike the cunning of a system-maker. System in 
fact it has, and in the most complete and curious degree. 
But it is the system that subsists between the sides and 
angles of a triangle. Nor is it confined to the coincidence 
of number and correlation of character between the di- 
visions, both principal and subordinate, of the two dia- 
grams. Their joint correspondence to history is still more 
signally elucidated in the position of contrariety from 
which the mind is, we see, constrained to commence its 
exploration. For the fact, that if we except some eight or 
ten centuries, and as many communities in each century, 



AXALYBIS OF COSMICAL XATUfJE. 109 

and about aw many iu'lividualw in each community, tlio 
species througli myriads of ages and nations have passed 
away without the comprehension of a single law of na- 
ture — this monstrous fact, I say, were inconceivable upon 
any other ground than the pyschological necessity now 
explainefl, the birth-place of Percej)tion at the complex 
end (jftlie natural scale, combined with a structural simpli- 
city obliging it to seek the other. This unknown, it was 
no marvel ti)at so j)reposterous a destiny should have been 
ascribed to the eating of an apple ; for when no probable 
reason can be assigned, the least significant is the most 
credible. Nor was the necessity a curse, as might be 
thougljl, but on the contrary a blessing. Without it sci- 
ence had been impossible. The laws of nature, being a 
progressive development from unity, are all at the same 
time similar and different, and Perception can proceed 
upon only one of these relations after the other, upon 
the privative by means of the positive. It must therefore 
make two contrary surveys of the phenomenal world ; 
illusory indeed in the objects, but irnj)ortant in their re- 
sults, as the latter leave the requisite material for the sci- 
entific solutionof the problem of nature, which is, I repeat, 
unity in diversity. And here, again, is another testimony 
to the threefold division which I have adopted in the 
general distribution of this essay. Jjut I must now pass 
to another department, where 1 also hope to exemplify 
how far the cunning of sophistical genius may be sur- 
passed in its contrivances by even the Ijumblest inquirer, 
who, having been fortunate enough to fall upon tlje foot- 
steps of nature, is only honest enough to pursue them in 
spirit and in truth. 

§ 28. By this sovereign clue in fact, I am next con- 
ducted to the remaining aspect of the analysis. In the 
former chapter we discussed the phenomena of what may 
be called the mental side of the subject, and found them, 
all resolvable into the single and sole faculty of Perception, 
as developed through two divergent but concurrent se- 
ries of progression ; the one proceeding in this amplifi- 
cation of purview by extension, the other by comprehen- 
sion ; the former series consisting of three stages, termed 
Principles of Conception, from their successive modes of 
apprehending the aggregate phenomena of nature, as 
10* 



110 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Qualities, Relations, Law^s; the secoiul consisting of 
nine Processes or powers of intuition, resulting, through a 
cross-division of each of the generic terms, from so many 
grades of complication in the composition of nature. 
Thus far, however, the existence of the development 
itself, as well as the accuracy of its two gradations, had 
been established but inferenlially ; they rested upon the 
same evidence as does the Newtonian astronomy ; they 
accounted for all the facts of mind by a rigorous induction. 
But as the simple essence or ellect called Mind could not 
have wrought its own develojiment, there lurked an as- 
sumption that the proximate cause of this progressive 
evolution would bo ibund in the other factor of the pro- 
blem. This implication has been fully justified, as we 
have seen, in the present chapter, by a resolution of the 
external world into the sole agency of Motion, disposing 
matter under three progressive combinations of attributes, 
and composing each upon three subordinate but similar 
forms of existences ; — both resulting in what shall bo hence- 
forth called, respectively, the three Predicables and the 
nine Categories of our division of Nature. And as this 
intricate and exact concordance removes the remnant 
of hypothesis, and raises the analysis of mind to the 
conclusiveness of demonstration ; so this analysis must 
react upon its cosmical counterpart with an cquul though 
opposite force as well of evidence as intuition. Init as all rc- 
aclion presupposes an external resistance ; as mind appear- 
ed to be but Motion in its highest organic form, turned 
backward to contemplate its own precedhig complications ; 
and as these besides can be perceived directly by the cor- 
responding Processes, but gradually and by the interposi- 
tion of media ; from these accumulated considerations, it 
is clear that we have yet to explain a third and most 
important aspect of the subject. There must in fact have 
been a series of artificial resistances, not only to produce 
the reaction, but to j)erpeluate it progressively, and pro- 
mote Perception in the practical api)lication ol" its several 
Processes to the appropriate position of contemplation. 
This system of gracluated media, whereby the unity of the 
human Mind is enabled to compass the multiplicity of na- 
ture, is called Method — of which we have thus not only 
circumscribed the lluctuating province, but also delineated, 
by implication, down to its minutest divisions. 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. Ill 

GIIAPTEll III. 

Logical and Cli'i'onological Analysis of Method. 

§ 29. Mctboci, as tlie name imports (1), is tljo means 
of" placing the perceiving mind upon the path, or to speak 
more justly, upon the track, of creative nature. And as 
the ol^ject has been seen to consist of" a certain succession of 
stages, and the agent, in surmounting each, to undergo a 
corresponding modification, it follows that there must be 
also a suitable variety of methods ; and moreover, that 
holding thus the chain of inquiry by both the ends, we 
may ascertain the intermediate links w^ith an assurance 
almost infallible. Still I shall not, even here, decline the test 
of general language, although to adopt it may lay open to 
cavil the novel doctrines of the deduction. My first pre- 
tension is, in all things, to account for that which is, as the 
warrant for proceeding to say what should or what shall be ; 
for the one is a principal part ofj as well as preface to, the 
others. But names, 1 repeat, are perfect indications of 
existence : not in what they denote, which being conven- 
tional is always mutable, and often imaginary, but in what 
they imply, which, being a fact, remains unchanged. And 
this fact, wliich is what the mathematicians call the 
" function" of the term, its mode of psychological forma- 
tion, is invariably involved in the etymology. So has it 
proved already, in the present subject, with the generic 
name. And the special denominations will, I doubt not, 
here as hitherto, contribute their historic testimony to the 
demonstrations of the theory. 

§ 30. To proceed, however, with these ; we have the 
single faculty of Perception, under three general and nine 
subordinate modifications of power, pursuing (as it were) 
the single relation of Motion through a similarly double 
series of ascending complications. The route, therefore, 
or method, must also have been one essentially, under a 
a corresponding diversity of j)rogre6sive combinations. 
Accordingly we find the fundamental form in the pro- 

(1) Mera-oJoj, 8U])er viam. 



112 VESTI&ES OF CtViLl2ATI0lT. 

cess named Induction. This technical character, as well 
as the general object just assigned to the operation of 
Method, are exactly expressed in the term ; which signi- 
fies etymologically (1) the art of leading the human mind 
through the labyrinthian complications of nature. This 
happy aptness of denomination may seem incredible or 
accidental to those v/ho holdj after Lord^Bacon, that the 
ancients knew nothing of induction. But the truth is, that 
this great man committed the very common mistake of 
converting the genus into a species. He confined the 
name induction to that second cycle of the operation 
which is occupied with the simplification, the generaliza- 
tion of Differences, and coincides with the region of phys- 
ical inquiry. And in fixing its denotation here, he has 
entailed upon English philosophy an amount of confusion 
which perhaps half outweighs his immense services in 
other particulars. Such is, for example, the jumble, 
throughout his logical writings, of this superfaetation of a 
specific induction with the methods proper to the epoch, 
namely, analysis and experiment. And I know not of a 
single production, from his day to the present in British 
literature, wherein those processes are consistently defined 
among themselves, and are not moreover put at variance 
with some or other of their sister species. But instead of 
irksome, because too easy criticism, let us turn to our double 
clue, and mark what order it will unfold in this perverse 
and disgraceful chaos. 

§ 31. Continuing, then, the analogy along this general 
principle of all method, it should in the next place be found 
to offer in the aggregate of its evolution, like mind and 
motion, three principal divisions. Induction, in this sum- 
mary and successive distribution, might be described as 
the procedure by means of which Perception, in conse- 
quence of its own simplicity or oneness, is obliged to take 
in gradually, to unravel occasionally, and to coil up syste- 
matically upon the tablet of memory, the complex tissue 
of universal relations or laws according to which objects 
and their operations appear to co-exist or supplant each 
other in the general system of nature. And these depart- 
ments of the instrument may be also doubly determined 

(1) Ets-aycoyr,. A conducting through. 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVP:RSAL METHOD. US 

by the .correspondence, on the one hand, of the three 
bases of the agent, namely Resemblance, Difference, and 
Uniformity (§ 14), and on the other, the three progressive 
modifications of the object, which are Quality, Relation, 
and Law. 

Accordingly, the first and fundamental task of" taking 
in" infers in fact, by mere qualities, and on the basis of 
their resemblance. On the latter, because the notion least 
divergent from identity, fi-om unity, from harmony with 
the mind's calibre. By qualities, because the simplest or 
sensuous objects of perception. But the resemblance here 
is of the coarsest kind, the inference spontaneous, and the 
media, the method of course suitably material : all three, 
however, progressing abreast along the coetaneous mental 
Processes of Sensation, Memory, Imagination. The earli- 
est artificial materials of method are words. The appel- 
lative, at first proper to a particular sensation, is extended 
to another, which impresses with the like quality ; and so 
on, upon each additional recurrence of the like imj^ression, 
until the term becomes common, that is, becomes a name. 
Again, naming, which is thus the second or mnemonical 
stage of inference, is farther modified by imagination 
into a structure called a sentence ; and which, as usual, is 
composed of the three elements of the series ; to wit, the 
copula, which marks the subjective inference by mere 
sensation ; the subject, which serves to aggregate exteriorly 
by recollection ; the predicate, which, around the com- 
|)ound of these rude inductions called an object, goes on 
inferring other qualities and objects by grouping. And 
hence the primitive amalgamation of the three terms, in 
all idioms. At this primitive stage of Induction, there- 
fore, the general method is language; and specifically, 
nomenclature, terminology, and syntax. It is the induc- 
tion of the infant, the savage, and the poet. 

But besides the qualities thus unified, whether in ob- 
jects or images, by language, there are others, which fi'om 
the first are found rebellious to this rude procedure. 
Such were all phenomena visibly active, and either of occa- 
sional occurrence or irregular manifestation. These could 
not be fixed in images — they could be simplified only by 
referring them (i. e. inferring objectively) to the objects in 
which they appeared to originate, and which were thus 



114 VKSTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

conceived to giMieiale tliein (pareiil-wise) progressively. 
Honeo the lanioiis family of* sporios, clillercntia, ami pvo- 
pria: teriiis which iutlnialc, every one of them, that the 
track of liesenibhince has been abandoned, and llic mind is 
on its negative circnit of Dillerence. No longer are 
things regarded the same because of a common name ; 
but now because of a common nature or origin. And this 
figurntivo paternity has received the various designations 
of divinity, entity, universal, or cause, according to the 
successive prevalence of the correlative mental Processes, 
which are, it will be remembered, Kellcction, Abstraction 
and CJeneralization. The obvious relation of cause and 
effect between these two series will be explained in its 
place. Meanwhile, the notion, and perhaps, the name, of 
Relation itself in gencn'al, assigned as another character 
of the second epoch of Induction, is accordingly derived 
from the same conception of kindred. The linear nature 
of the idea supplies an intellectual transum, which serves 
to bridge, as it were, the mystic gulf of })hysical dissimi- 
litude, between antecedent and consequent, between 
cause and effect. For the even route of resemblance it 
yields a seasonable substitute, on which Perception goes 
on inferring athwart the barriers of Dillerence. Thus this 
happy conjunction of opj^osites is a virtual resemblance- 
still ; and the metaphysical progeny of method finds an 
admirable description, in the well-known lines of Ovid, 
concerning I forget whom, 

» * « » Faoies non omnibus una, 

Nvr (lirrrsa tamon ; (lualoiu iloccl esse st)iorimi. 

The mode of inference, however, though no longer 
quite instinctive, though passed from grouping and 
groping to the linear extension of Sjiecies, is still but 
superficial and indirect. As the inference by Qualities 
would be strictly termed </('ferenco, in the etymological 
sense of vehicle to the infant intelligence, so this inference 
by Relations might more properly be termed ;rference. 
As yet Induction does not, like the Christian apostles, go 
forth to " bring in" new phenomena. And when any 
such present themselves they are either viewed as already 
catalogued to a certain divinity, entity, type, &:c., or reject- 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. Il5 

ed as appertaining to some other branch of the fantastic 
family. In either of the cases they are admitted, not in- 
ferred. The ceremony is a recognition, not an hitroduc- 
tion. The process is not as formerly a " taking in," but 
an " unravelling." Of Induction, during this second 
epoch, the general method is metaphysics, duly formed by 
mere negation upon its physical predecessor of words. 
The special forms may be called divination, revelation, 
hypothesis. It is the induction of the priest, the poli- 
tician, and the metaphysician. 

As with Quality before, so Relation now in turn un- 
dergoes a transformation with the dawning manhood of 
the mind. The hypothetical procreation by deity, essence, 
or cause, is perceived to be all illusory, and the real phe- 
nomena to be nothing more than indefinitely succeeding 
effects with the relations of their succession. These uni- 
versal relations, resting alone upon jiositive facts, give the 
true conception of a scientific or a natural law. But as 
facts cannot be connected by the direct resemblance of 
image, nor even by the kin resemblance of cause, the 
resemblance now appropriate is that of joint action and 
result : for resemblance, though much more abstract and 
complicate, there must be still a Perception, I repeat, had • 
never classed so far as the rudest savage counts. We 
know in fact it was this very obstacle, of abstract com- 
plexity in the scientific relation of phenomena, that drove 
the mind into the circuit of a thousand ages just delineated ; 
where it was prepared for this final feat not only by exer- 
cise of its own faculty, but also by familiarizing itself with 
the two elements apart, namely the element of physical 
likeness in passing from images to essence, and that of 
symbolical likeness in descending from essences to 
efJects. And thus is it now enabled to consoli !ate them 
both, in the usual scientific concept of a triangle, by draw- 
ing the base line of relation from efi'ects to effects, in real 
conformity to the action and the order of nature. Here 
accordingly Induction too assumes the proper character of 
inference. From being passive or precarious, it becomes 
aggressive and systematical. It unifies, not by resem- 
blance of nature or of name, but by the figured resem- 
blance of reason termed uniformity. This principle, like 
its two predecessors, has also three progressive stages to 



115 VESTIGKS 01^ CIVILIZATION*. 

suit tlio coiTcspoiiiVuit^ scries of the Processes of Percep- 
tion, C()nsistiii<^ of Reason, Compurison, Metljod ; and 
these three kinds of uniformity are no other than our 
three Predicablcs (§ '23), of Co-existence, Co-occurrence, 
and Co-operation. So that this historical exposition of the 
modifications of Induction so far tallies, at all points and 
periods, with its double co eflicients, along the progressive 
powers of the agent and complications of the object. It has 
now conveyed the principle to its scientilic basis ; such, for 
instance, as it reached among the Greeks in mathematics, 
and in physics among the moderns at the epoch of I5acon ; 
and at last, in the third Predicable, or what is called the 
social sciences, in the universal theory expounded in these 
pages. The general method of this linal epoch is effectu- 
ally mathematics, in the latitude above assigned to the 
progressive aggregate of its three relations, of having ac- 
tually furnished the models of all tlie combinations in 
nature, and consecjucntly holding the clue to their method- 
ical conception. This then is the induction of the man of 
the world and the philosopher ; for the science of the one 
is but the cautious experience of the other extended and 
" coiled up" into a system. 

§ 32. The term method, however, is usually limited to 
investigations of the last order, because there alone it be- 
comes positive and })roductive. It was, also, on this solid 
basis, of universal relations or laws, that I conducted ex- 
clusively the foregoing analysis of cosmical nature. For 
both these reasons, I have reserve 1 to this most important 
of the three departments an exposition of the nine specific 
subdivisions of Induction, which should answer (if I am 
right) to the nine categories of complication. Here the 
details may be doubly tested, on the one side by the scale 
of obstacles in the composition of nature, and on the other 
by the actual results in the more recent history of method. 
Of both criteria, I was obliged, in the two preceding 
periods, to contract the latter, for brevity's sake, to the 
three generic forms, and for truth's sake, to omit the for- 
mer entirely as illusory ; although there must have been, 
in both, the same specihc subdivision, not only of methods 
but of knowledges : as witness the two familiar examples 
already meutic)ned, the nine Parts of Speech, which are the 
infant modes oi" Induction by wards, and the nine Muses, 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 117 

which is a specimen of classification by gods. To draw 
both the terms out were to hold up to human vanity a history 
of the feebleness and fatuity of our species worth, undoubt- 
edly, all the moralizings of all its preachers. But it here 
suffices to have indicated their unrecognized existence and 
necessary amenability to the theory. And it does so the 
more entirely that, in the application to which we now 
proceed, the third division of Induction must, according 
to the law of progression, reproduce under modified 
forms the methods of language and metaphysics, to prepare 
its final or scientific basis ; for even here it must proceed 
from quality, through relation, up to law. Accordingly, 
we can already recognize the several characteristics in the 
three generic departments of positive Induction, named 
significantly. Logic, Analysis, and Synthesis. 

Let Induction be now traced through these three cycli- 
cal phases in its specific application to the nine Categories 
of phenomena (§23), and as directed by the nine Processes 
of Perception (§14). 

Induction, then, directed by Sensation upon Number, 
would necessarily be a simple enumeration of like in- 
stances. Directed by Memory upon Quantity, the process 
would be analogy, or inference fromassociation, by exam- 
ples. Induction, by Imagination applied to relations of 
Figure, would be a compound of the two preceding 
modes reversed ; it would be an inference of particular 
cases from formulized analogies or axioms ; it would be 
the method so notorious in the " figures" of the syllogism. 
And as the three forms would thus exhaust the three com- 
bining resources proper to language — the first combining 
by attributes or description, the second by names or defi- 
nitions, and the third, as we see, by propositions — they 
would constitute together the province appropriate to 
Logic, or the method of reasoning by the media of words. 

Induction must therefore next proceed to reason by 
things. Not, however, the things or objects which are 
themselves to be ascertained, as the distinction is absurdly 
vaunted by the pragmatical cant of our day ; but ob- 
jects whose mathematical properties the previous induc- 
tions have made familiar, and taught to fashion for the 
purposes of darker investigation. Resorting, then, to 
these new means, the second series of mental Processes, 
11 



118 VESTIGES OF CIYILIZATIOK. 

directed to their respective Categories, would assume tlio 
following forms. Reflection having come to address itself 
to the laws of force or latent action, must proceed by oh- 
servation, in the philosophical sense of this term ; that is 
to say, by actively remarking or searching for the same 
phenomenon as placed in differ cnt circumstances by nature 
herself. But Abstraction, which inducts the elements of 
physical Mixture, cannot wait to find them accessible 
spontaneously ; it must make them so hy force, of which 
it has just obtained the secret ; it must employ instruments 
to take them actually or virtually asunder ; aud so this spe- 
cies of Induction might be termed mstrumentation. From 
the elements thus attained. Generalization, studying Struc- 
ture, seeks to recompose or generate (for this is the origi- 
nal import) the structural relations to be '* unravelled." 
This systematic trial to reproduce the forms of nature 
would properly be Induction by exjieriinentation. It is 
needless to add a word to show this second triad of methods 
to be collectively and characteristically Analytic. 

Induction passes finally to the field of organical science. 
In the hands of Reason it is applied to the phenomena of 
Growth, that is to say, progressive transformation ; and 
having mastered, in the preceding period, the various 
modes of structure, with their elements and laws of for- 
mation individually, it could put a number of those forms 
together by a series of inferences, so as to reproduce and 
thus resolve the fluctuations of the living object : this in- 
duction from a juxtaposition of principles to particulars, 
would, from its reputed inversion, be naturally named 
DEdtiction. Next, of course, the inference is from a jux- 
taposition of individuals to a serial unification of princi- 
ples ; Induction, at this task which is the object of Com- 
parison and of which the subject is animal Life, would be 
tlie very modern method named Classificatioii. As to the 
supreme mental Process or power of Perception which I 
have termed Method, its application of Induction, that 
is to say of itselfi to the final Category of Intellect, pre- 
sents a curiously conformable combination. Method here 
in fact must do no less, we see, than place Perception in a 
position where it can see the mode and laws of its own ac- 
tion : and this returning of Motion, like the symbolic ser- 
pent, into itself, were evidently the completion of the circle 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. llO 

of human knowledge ; leaving, afterwards, an easy lliougli 
perhaps endless synthesis to revolve it into the sphere of 
cosmical nature. From this point we are apparently as yet 
remote both in mind and method. But the latter, we 
know already, must in this case be, as usual, a compound' 
of the two former procedures of its triad ; a resolution' 
therefore of all existences into a juxtaposition of laws. In- 
duction here would have a better title, as well in sense as in 
etymology, than its pi'esent narrow subject, to the learned 
name of taxonomy. In fine, the act of *' coiling up" or 
putting together, which we saw constitute, individually and 
collectively, the three terms of this series, evinces its gen- 
eric character as synthetic. Nor does the character here- 
embrace these special forms themselves alone; but also, 
through them, the two preceding aggregates. For such,- 
I repeat, is the law of our universal principle, which con- 
ceives the methods, as well as the minds and the bodies, of 
mankind to be pre-eminently matters of growth, and there- 
fore to contain in the earliest germ a complete outline of the 
organism, which merely expands itself by repetition of 
the same processes progressively. 

To sum up, then, we find the universal method of In- 
duction, in leading the human mind throughout the laby- 
rinth of nature, would accomplish the whole route by three' 
systematic surveys, with just as many similar and subordi- 
nate stages to each, which are severally signalized in the 
following table : 

Logical (System) Enumeration : Analogy : Syllogism ; 

Analytic '* Observation : Instrumentation : Experimentation ^ 
Synthetic " Deduction : Classification : Taxonomy. 

§ 33. And such as must have a priori, been the results-' 
of the theory, such do we here again find to be the famir^ 
liar facts. There is scarce a term of this long catalogue, 
either general or special, that is not found to figure freely 
in every school-book on the subject. They are even un- 
derstood, with few exceptions, as now explained ; under- 
stood more or less imperfectly and taken individually. 
But as to the marshalling of their concurrent orders of 
general progression, of mutual interdependence and spe- 
cific appropriateness, both to epoch and object — in all this 



120 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

they continue to fluctuate like the jarring atoms of Epi- 
curus. Some arc absolutely rejected, u^ion the ignorant 
assumption that they first originated in nothing but error, 
or can now operate but mischief Others are amalgama- 
ted two or more into one ; most are intcrverted indiscrimi- 
nately ; all in short are tumbled into most varieties of dis- 
location. To support this strong assertion I need but cite 
a single case, such as Mr. Mill's System of Logic. This 
treatise is one of the most recent and elaborate on the sub- 
ject of method ; it is professedly a compilation of the 
ri2:)est doctrines both native and foreign, and by a writer 
who is eminently capable of delivering his own opinions, 
and digesting those of others, with clearness and effect, 
lie uses, and discusses perhaps all the terras of the above 
diagram, and professes to harmonize them into a system. 
Yet a slight perusal of his book, in the point of view sug- 
gested, will prove him subject to a large proportion of 
the reprehension thus adventured. And what makes the 
charge more weighty, the confusion more monstrous, is 
that the latter does not apply alone to the co-ordinate 
terms of each division, but jumbles genera with specicBs, 
and even dwarfs the fundamental principle of Induction 
itself, into competition with syllogism and copartnership 
with experiment. Under these circumstances (nay, were 
they much more trustworthy), a deduction strictly ne- 
cessary, and verified historically, would surely be suffi- 
cient warrant for the classification here submitted — the 
first, I believe, that has been offered in this most import- 
ant subject. For explanation' sake, however, it may be 
requisite to add a running remark upon the serial order 
and nomenclature ; commencing with the sub-species and 
closing with the general type. 

1. The first or Numerical species, named with literal 
appropriateness, was necessarily the earliest mode of sci- 
entific induction. The fact is testified by Bacon, who, 
however, denounces the process as not appertaining to 
induction at all, and this while he was the first I think, to 
denominate it so significantly. For the ancients them- 
selves have left no' specific appellation, and for the good 
reason, of their mental position in these early stages of 
the development, when the special forms diverge too 
slightly to be distinguished from the type. An opposite 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 121 

aiul latet consequence of this optical illusion is the appro- 
priation of the generic name to that particular form of the 
process or principle wliich first emerges into palpable dis- 
tinctness : such, for instance, as the term perccjdion, which 
we saw attached to the act of this faculty, that first takes 
cognizance of phenomena in their substantial objectivity ; 
and also motion, which, though the thing be essentially 
common to all the sciences, is applied peculiarly, if not even 
exclusively, to the subject of mechanics, because here en- 
countered in more conspicuous or rather in coarser man- 
ifestation. So precisely with the correlative procedure of 
Induction. When it passes from the logical media of 
language to the more active investigation of nature by 
implements, the operation, become in this stage more 
obvious and emphatic, is made to arrogate the general 
title and to exclude its predecessors. Such in fact is the 
illusion to which Bacon, or rather Bacon's followers have 
attached the loudest, but least enduring part of his great 
fame. But, all in preconizing, with the usual enthusiasm^ 
of half knowledge, this experimental phase of Induction as- 
the sole method of all science, it was not possible to deny 
that there had existed, long previously, such things as- 
mathematical sciences, and which could no longer be de- 
cried, like the syllogism, by arguing from their abuse. 
How then was the inconsistency to be appeased ? Only,, 
of course, by imagining the laws of number, quantity, andi 
figure, to have been acquired without the intervention of 
any method at all. In an age a little darker, they could 
be brought direct from heaven. But this royal road hav- 
ing become too familiar in these simpler walks of nature,, 
the next expedient v/as, as usual, to make them innate to 
the human mind. Mathematics, then, alone were neces- 
sary results of the thinking faculty, were truths of intuhion,. 
were forms of conception, were conclusions from hypoth- 
esis, &c., &c. And why ? Because they could not have 
been results of Induction ? And why not ? Because In- 
duction in the proper sense was unknown to the ancients, 
who yet established them ! No doubt, this puerile sophis- 
try was also much dissembled by the concurrence of the 
positive action of the same illusion as above indicated ; I 
mean the merging of the primary class of species in the 
type, and of which the total negation of them is the natural 
11* 



122 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION'. 

reaction. But, v/itli this extenuation or aggravation (if 
the reader chooses) the foregoing argument embodies the 
sense, that is to say, the nonsense, or at least the narrow 
sense, of all the exclusive or extravagant laudations of 
*' induction" which continue to this day to deluge British 
and even French philosophy— a sort of quackery not more 
enlightened, while a good deal less acute, we see, than the 
" scholastic jargon" which it denounced and displaced. 
And so rooted is this " idol of the tribe" in the English 
mind, that even the author of the logical treatise alluded 
to, who lays claim and is perhaps entitled to the poor pre- 
eminence of first reducing the Flying Island of mathemat- 
ical laws to the solid domain of Induction, yet understands 
the historic nature of this procedure so imperfectly as not 
only to reject as spurious the process in question, of Enu- 
meration, but also Analogy, and description which is a 
joint application of both. That is to say, he repudiates the 
very forms of the universal method which were specifi- 
cally, nay exclusively aj^propriate to the subject; and 
moreover, with the contradiction of being unable to deny 
them the character of method still. Surely Bacon himself 
must have seen more justly than this : for in condemning 
Enumeration, he takes care to guard the term, and no 
doubt emphatically, with the qualification of" simple;" as 
if the process was conceded to be valid in its proper 
place, but became futile on applying it to more complex 
subjects — which was just the case. He even superadds the 
still explanatory condition : Ubi non sunt instantia contra- 
dictoria. I wonder where Mr. Mill, who knew the prin- 
ciples of mathematics to be pure generalizations by Induc- 
tion, could have looked for A-\e possibility of a contradictory 
instance, in the law of Number or even of Quantity, to give 
legitimacy to these results. 

The general application of most of the preceding will 
enable us to be much briefer with the rest of this series, and 
especially with the two complementary terms of the present 
system, to wit. Analogy and Syllogism. The former is 
the method proper to algebra, which infers no longer, by 
mere existences, but by equations, by analogies : an infal- 
lible disproof, by the by, of the prevailing notion that this 
science is more of modern creation than its mathematical 
fellows, save in mere nomenclature. Its relative maturity 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 123 

among the Hindoos, wlio were much inferior to the 
Greeks in geometry, is one of many confirmations of fact. 
However, this latter science, as far as quantitative or "ana- 
lytic," proceeds also by the method of analogy ; which is 
here called " parity of reasoning," meaning parity of re= 
lation. In fine, the primitive place assigned it is evinced 
in the very abuse by which Analogy, like Enumeration, 
had been extended beyond its sphere. In the complex 
subject of jurisprudence, where however the facts became 
early positive, it is the sole mode of reasoning amon"- all 
barbarous nations. Thus the Bible represents even the in- 
spired judges of Israel as adjudicating but by reference to 
the case of the son of Sirac, &c. ; in short as uniformly giv- 
ing you a prophet for a principle. The Koran, the Shaster, 
the Vedas do all likewise. And the English common 
law, for all reason and science, cites a dictum of Coke or 
a dubitation of Eldon. So v/ell has Paley characterized 
this infant system, though quite unconsciously, in curlly 
calling it a " competition of analogies." 

As to Syllogism, its serial position and singular history 
are now plain. It followed, of course, the two processes 
which were to furnish its two premises. Combining their 
opposite properties of diversity and unity, it as naturally 
cast them both in the shade, and had the distinction of 
composing, in the culminant hands of Aristotle, the me- 
thodical system of the first Cycle of speculation. Rever- 
sing, also, their respective methods, of inferring ^iion 
particulars (these being now embraced in nniversals, which 
had thus become the basis), the syllogistic stage of Induction 
was in direct and double conflict — both as to the instru- 
ments, and order, of inference — with the succeeding prov- 
ince of Physics. Hence the memorable warfare upon 
this symbol of the Logical method by the modern founders 
of the Analytic. 

2. The subdivisions of the latter system are better 
known, with one exception. The general part of instru- 
mentation in this department of Induction has not, I think, 
before been deemed a method. Yet its claim appears un- 
doubted, both in essence and extent. If the end of all 
method be to place Perception in that ideal-position where 
nature may be seen as she really is, surely this title can- 
not be denied to the microscope and telescope. Such as 



124 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION'. 

these, however, are hut the transhire appendages to Ob- 
servation, ami by which it ]nvsses into ih.e region proper of 
Instrumentation. As the Mind was brought by Syllogism 
to the detection of incongruous errors, and by Observation 
to the discernment of unknown objects, so by the method of 
instruments we are often made acquainted with hitherto 
unimagined agencies or principles. Thus our knowledge, 
such as it yet is, of the very existence of motion in the two 
higher complications termed polarity and electricity, has 
been acquired almost exclusively through the galvanic 
battery and electric machine. But it is quite needless to 
argue the inductive importance of the philosophical labor- 
atory which, as I think, is rather over than underrated in 
the present day. And its methodic character has been, 
no doubt, not overlooked but only confounded with its two 
coadjutors in this peculiarly chaotic period of Induction. 

Of these the remaining, named Experiment, was slight- 
ly rectified above. It was shown by no means to consist^ 
as the current opinion supposes, in resolving objects into 
their elements, which is rather the ofllce of Instrumenta- 
tion. The end is, on the contrary, by putting these ele- 
ments together to try to reproduce the actual forms or 
functions of nature. And this definition is alone conform- 
able to the universal order of progression. For if the 
three periods into which this order is seen to divide itself 
concurrently, in our separate analysis of matter and mind 
as well as method, have been well described, in the latter 
character, as so many aggregate etlbrts, under successive 
views, to put together, to unity the diversity of nature; 
then it follows that the closing process of each division 
must be synthetic. The fact accordingly was plain in the 
instance of Syllogism, which proceeded upon co-existences 
and by rules. It was disguised, by the less exclusive part 
of mind or language, in Experimentation, w^iich proceeds 
upon conjoined occurrences and by results. But it was 
necessarily as appropriate to the constructions of time as 
its ancient analogue had been to those oi space. A truth 
attested also by the duly gentle transition whereby expe- 
riment must pass Perception into a province specially 
Synthetic. But where, however, the constructive process 
differs still from the preceding stages merely in summing 



ASALXkiH OF T;y/VEB8AL UZ'iUOl). lUo 

M]) l.}jc rcHullH not, like tliOHC, of the Bcvcral nyntemH, but 
of* all the tliroc HyHtcrnH collectively. 

'J. ThJH i« alho the compound character of the two an- 
terior prrice«HCB, whiclj by cr;mbining, each the two cor- 
responding ^pecic'H of the former u'vuh, produce the effect 
of a KyntljeHii!, and ho an elong;jlIon of Kxperimeiit. Thus 
Deduction, which followH in order the analytic period, was 
found to be a jnxtnpocition of two or more of the reeulting 
clementH, an itiduction nf>ne the less simple because the 
partidilarH here are pnncijjleH : but as tliene urJts are ef- 
fectual aggregatcH, tlie operation, in anotlier aspect, is 
manifcHtly a puttirjg togetlier, a HyntheniH. The fjact in fetill 
more clear in Classification, which repreBentn tlie two Lr> 
gical HpecicH ; and v/ho8e nynthetic effect a« well «» ele- 
mental affinity arc conspicuouH in it8 obviouB character of a 
colligation by nomenclature. Of Taxonomy, which is the 
final and doubly nynthetic term, we just remarked that it 
comjjriHed not orjly immediately the two premises of its 
particular department, but representatively the entire 
series of the nine methods. i\nd tf> complete this magic 
ofprogresHion, — which miglitlook like a jday of fancy, were 
the proof not repi reduced until the projKjhitions F.eem half 
identical — tbe climax I say is, that this all involving act of 
syntljenis is, at the same time, the same single and simple 
Induction which we saw start at the other end upon the 
basis of dirn sensation. The difference is, that it now 
op(;ratcs upon the proximate elerncrits of science, the 
universal serjuences arjd synergies of nature. And this 
position it at length attains through the successive media 
of the jueceding systems, which result in leaving the 
phenomenal world dihj>osed, by equalities, into groups, 
and ])y itelations, into series ; and thus precisely in that 
juxtfi{)r>sition which best exhibits to Perception the abstract 
tissue that interweaves tliem, termed natural Laws. So 
that tbere is at least a rigorous etyrnoh*gical propiiely to 
atone for the sole neology which 1 have had to allow my- 
self, but with much reluctance; fijr I hate the mingled 
crudity, constraint and conceit which too often belong to a 
new word or a new coat or a new country. Perhaps, 
however, we mightsub:nitutethe term Science in a special 
sense. 

But another reason for the less regretting the neces-sity 



126 Vi:STI0K^5 OF CIVII.I/ATIOX. 

jusi oc'curs, ill ;i suooivstion of t'(|ii;tl jxMllm'iUH^ iiud iin- 
portiuuH). It is that iouoj: thc! sih-oiuI ciUmhcuI of taxonomy, 
and moaning law, together with Aojoc, im|)oiling ihooiyor 
]uin('i|)li\ and )'j,'<f(jn". to group or (Icscrilxs is soon to do- 
yignato in invorso order, iho thrcolold form orconcoplual 
progress, in all llio syslomatic divisions of naliiro. In 
sovoral the applications (^\is(, in fact alrt^idy; tliougli in 
many cases incorrect and in iioik\ 1 lliink, comj)let('! ; no 
doubt, becauso either the subject lias not yet attained tho 
pliase of science, or that tho primai-y pair of suflixes have 
Fuffered degradation from being pro-occupied by tho in- 
fant vagariivs of imagination and liy[)othesis. Tims as- 
tronomy denotes the knowledge of the laws of the solar 
system. .But to designate tho theory wo say " physical" 
ast ro//^>/;///, by a snperl'a elation at onco empirical and pro- 
]n)sterous ; but who, in presence of its antecedents, would 
ilareiMuploy the word 'As\vo/(\^t/ ? And even tho previous 
term ns\i\\iir(ij>//i/, to which no such objection lies, is still 
precluded by the crude phrase of a " catalogi/ing of the 
stars." Of this procedure it is worth rmnarking that its 
principal feature, tho aggregates called constellations, 
preserv(Mhe truest because the sim[)lest relic of the reign 
of induction by Imagination, which was shown to bo a 
grouping and naming after animal or other images. All 
three ttMininations are, however, becoming more regular 
acct)rding as we advance along the scale of science; and 
must end with being completely systematized. But tho 
jMMut to our inniuMliate ])ur})ose is, that the present theory 
has iirst sup[>!ied the rationale oi' their instinctive rise, in 
the three gradations of all knowledge, and the representa- 
tion oftheir distinctive ollice, in the three di>partments ofall 
method. To the latter then, as the next stage, I now as- 
cend to take a single glance at tho histi)rical mutualities of 
confirmation and correction. 

§ ol. Tho first that oilers is the wt^ll-known priority of 
tho Logical system of methods Those are tho only 
modes of Induction attained technically by the ancients, or 
practised ovon by the modern world, with the few excep- 
tions of men of science. This was explained not only by 
the relative simplicity of the natural unil()rmlties thoy apply 
to, but also by the nature, half s])ontaneous, half spiritual, 
of the verbal media which we liud, accordingly, still attest- 



ANALYSIS OF UMVEUSAL MEIHOD. ]27 

C(] by l.licir very names. For not merely doeH llie 
generic term mean tlje Bcienco of reaKoning by mearjH of 
wordH, but the element "i-oyog i.s rej)rotlucetl, we liave Been, 
in two outof th)(je of tlic specific prrjceKSCH, and is doubt- 
leHH a}>Hent in the fir.sl f>rily by the cuKtomary ornishifin to 
ur^minale tbe pfibilivcj rlcgrf-e, I'biH j^rimnry fJ>jm, wliicli 
from tlie mfK]t;rn j)urvi».'W liaH been named Jilrjumerafion, 
would rniginally have Ijeen dehigriated wlo^ism ; and on 
lliis tacit bahiH it in, aCcoidin^lyj that tlie I Wo KUcCesBorH 
erect their affixf^H (of an(i-\uv(\h\n and ,i'un-]< i^ihin), which 
are HO admirably ex]neKBive of the corresjjfjnding comjdica- 
lions (§'i'i. 1). 'i'o Huch qiiile irjfallible confiimaliorjH br^tli 
BH to (-haracter and irjtegrity, T nf;(;d l;iit add liie curiouHtes- 
limciuy of a mod(;rn error c;f much notoriety : I mean the 
maxim of Condillac, wliich placed all method in a well- 
framed language. This celebrated doctrine we may now 
perceive to })e less an error than an exaggeration, allow- 
ing the author's theory of method and even that of his 
latest critics. For if Logic be indeed synonymous with 
the sum total of the reasoning ])rocess, then the dogma of 
Condillac was substantially correct: for the Logical sys- 
lf;m dof:.s consist in a W(;]l constitutfMl languag(j. And so 
this shrewd butrjot profound philoHOj^her woiild have mere- 
ly erred in the apj)licatif>n ; as he seems to have thought 
his perfect expression would in all the sciences be alike 
reducible to the simplicity of the symbols of algebra. Ijut 
this ov(;rsight of the scientific gradation of complexify, to 
which the utmost perfection of language must coni(>rm 
in precise proporti(jn, was an ernjr of i)liilosoi)}iy not 
of method. Had he been aware of a progressional series 
as laid down in the j)receding chapter, he would 
doubtless have stipulated for a special symbol to each of 
tlje terms; and with this qualificaticjn of mere degree, the 
position had been quite tenable. ILi could then have shown 
why the perfectiotj in rjuestion prevailed as yet in only a par- 
ticular department, which was necessarily the sim})le extre- 
mity of the scale; and why this department, consi.sling of 
three complications, employs in fiict but as n-iany symbols, 
whether mi the literal character (;f algebra or the linear one 
of geometry. lie might even have clearly [pointed for a ru- 
dimr;ntal realization, no less exactly con esponding to the 
whole nine terms of the scale, in the curious fact so often 



128 VESTIGES 0? CiVILIZATION'. 

ciu'ouiiterotl on tlio path oi^ this cxjiDsllion, I mean tlio 
elements of goncnil syntuK callctl tho Nino Parts of 
Speech. And it is not very creditable to writers accjuaint- 
cd with oven tho little that has been learned of tho truo 
pliilosopliy of language since the day of Oondillac, or with 
the special history of its progress in tho department of 
mathematics, from the clumsy system of tho ingenious 
Greeks, down to tho actual simplification scarce older than 
two centuries ; it is, I say, not creditable, or at least con- 
sistent, to reject this consequent delinition of method, 
while they too admit the part of Logic, that is of language, 
to be the whole process. ]nit in truth the taking of this 
part, a one-third and primitive part, for the whole, was tho 
sole, but no doubt coarse error of Condillac ; and this, I 
repeat, is shared, though for the most part less systemati- 
cally, by all his successors, his censors included, and not 
excepting Mr. Mill. 

Of the many resulting rectifications I have now to in- 
dicate but one : It is tho theoretical necessity of restricting 
the name of Logic, and its pretensions to the first of the 
three cycles of Induction. This should also be followed 
out practically by separate treatises upon each of the three 
systems, and adapted to ascending orders of education. 
Logic proper would hold the position which both tho 
history oi' method and the instinct t)f mankind have con- 
curred, we see, in assigning it, as alone suited to tho rea- 
soning infancy of the indivilual as of the species ; and the 
other systems would follow successively either according 
to a classification oi' studies in the same collegiate institu- 
tion, or to a gradation of such institutions in the state ; or 
they might be destined, the last especially, for that ulterior 
self-education which is not only an essential sup}>lement to 
all that colleges can do at best, but which, as colleges are 
now conducted, must begin its Augean task with removing 
their sterile rubbish and rectifying their distortions. Of 
these desolating consequences, a principal part is duo to 
the wretched superfaetation of the modern developments 
of method upon the integrity of the ancient and still the 
school systems of logic ; and this by persons, at least in this 
country, who know little more of either than the barren 
technicalities or even the bare terms. Medlies so mon- 
strously puerile and preposterous that, for the purpose of 



AJiALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 129 

making arcasoncr I woulfl almost as soon recommend the 
liabitua] reading of the Jiiblc — of course I mean, for the 
said impious purpose. 

2. To speak of confusion and quackery in method is 
to suggest the second group, which I have called and 
already characterized as the Analytic. The propriety of 
this designation would historically be better attested by 
the absence than the jirevalence of such a system in anti- 
quity ; for, according to the theory, it could not have been 
known, in its most distinctive feature of mechanical instru- 
mentation. It was not until Words had failed that neces- 
sity could teach Induction, as it did the old man in the 
fable, to try the virtue of stones. It is with man's lan- 
guage as with his limbs which he continues to employ 
exclusively, until they utterly fail to feed his merest ani- 
mal wants from tlie spontaneous products of nature, his 
own species included ; the alternative of starvation can 
alone prompt him to the slow contrivance of implemerits 
with which to wrest subsistence from her bosom by force. 
]3ut as the wants of the intellect are much later and less 
urgent than those of the stomach ; so ancient philosophy 
did not live to learn the suitable methodic media of the 
mechanical section of science. In short, it died of this 
very want of the proper analytic instruments, as an Indian 
tribe dies of the want of the agricultural. Still it might 
have penetrated, in its long struggle v/ith the old tools, the 
general nature of the new requisite, and thus de:tcribe it 
well by name. And accordingly we find the great man, 
in whom declined the glories of ancient intellect, and 
who left his parting light along the hill-tops of all the sci- 
ences, foreshadow this physical organon in the term se- 
cond Analytics. Yet the distinction indicated by Aris- 
totle and now so palpable in itself, remains unmade by the 
latest v/ritcrs, upon method. On the contiary, as before 
the Logical, so the Analytic department, in turn, is held 
by an opposite sect of philosophers to be the whole Induc- 
tive process. Unable, for reasons explained, to extend 
their frontier upwards, they decry, as barren, the district of 
" syllogism," and turn their encroachments downwards 
into the terra incognita of the succeeding and Synthetic 
region. This is because their proper province is almost 
equally ill known to them; as shown in fact in speaking of 
12 



180 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

its Specific divisions. They do not discern that these are, 
in their merely mental aspect, the identical three elements 
of the syllogistic system, only operating as the result of 
imperative experience, with other ii^plements more con- 
natural with the new field. As if to aggravate this 
coarse immersement of the mental undercurrent in the 
mechanism which merely opens it a way, they superadd the 
inconsistency of not distinguishing the material media as the 
proper subject, or even a part, of the methodic operation. 
And hence again the inability to bound or graduate the 
real province of their vaguely styled experimental methods ; 
the extravagance which, indulging the vulgar rule of 
estimation, measures the virtue, by the violence, of the 
effort. The Chemists, to whom in particular, belong the 
process I have named instrumentation, think to storm all 
the fortresses of truth by fire and force. This however is 
but a modification of the very illusion which they too scoff 
at in their early predecessors, the alchemists. It is to 
suppose that nature is to be delivered habitually by the 
Caesarian operation, — which, though it may occasionally 
save a great man, surmount a great impediment, could 
bring, in general, but mutilation and disaster. So far, 
indeed, fiom the reality is any such necessity, that there 
are few, porhaps, among the physical results of violent 
instrumentation, which even already may not be seen to 
have been accessible spontaneously ; the sole advantage 
being the great one doubtless of saving time and labour. 
This in truth would seem to be the province of all method 
whatever. For Induction does not give Perception any 
absolute accession of power ; it only conducts it through 
a succession of obstacles to progressive " vantage grounds'* 
of view, until it leaves it ultimately in that focal distance 
of the phenomenal universe, which consummates the intu- 
ition I call universal science. 

Again, this scientific vision were in whole or part im- 
possible, unless so far as the rays of nature had converged 
in the percipient ; as the tissue of her operations had ter- 
minated all its threads, and deposited so many clues, in 
the human organism. This organism is then pre-emi- 
nently an instrument of method. And as the former pre- 
judice evinced how little even those who vaunt its virtues 
the loudest often know of the true nature of the Analytic 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVEUBAL METHOD. 131 

gystcm, 80 their concoplion of its resources may be seen 
not to be more accurate, from the quite consequent con- 
tempt wliich ibcjy are known to enteilairi for experimen- 
tation }>y HO called mesmerism or magnetism. No doubt 
this form of Instrumentation is as yet in tliat mystic in- 
fanf^y tlirougli wliicli chemistry itself and all other aciencest 
have had to pass. Hut it is destined to open a world wliich 
the chemists could never penetrate. As we saw mf.-chani- 
cal instrumentation to be requisite to Physical analysis, and' 
symbolical or verbal to the Logical; so the nervous system, 
wrought to Ijigher exquisiteness by joint nature and habit,. 
or even to morbid exaltation by design or by disease, the- 
nervous system, in the human subject, must hold the key 
to the great obstacles that beset the so-called organic divi- 
sion of our scale. I say by disease ; for as the so-called 
disorders in tlie inorganic globe afford a spontaneous and 
perha[)s complete decomposition of the corresponding^ 
complications, so pathology should supply the natural- 
analysis of physiology. I also specify the human subject, 
not only as objectively the most perfect, but that this alone- 
controls the power of descriptive communication. So that 
there is quite as much sense as satire in the remark of a 
Boured bachelor to whom I mentioned this redeeming des- 
tiny of " animal magnetism." The reply was, that there 
was then a prospect that " sentimental" ladies might be 
made of service to the promotion of science, and even be- 
come of higher value than rabbits and frogs; but to make 
them methods he thought should pose the pretensions of 
mesmerism itself. Yet to methods all such media should- 
rightly be referred; but the methods of the Analytic order. 
For, even unto the' more refined experimentation just allu- 
ded to, the result is always nothing but the surmounting 
of obstruction — the obstruction being in this case the com- 
mon horizon of the senses which are set, as it were, to see 
but the coarser side of nature — and thus opening the way 
for the " coiling" process of Induction. 

3. This, wliich in its full generality I term the Syn- 
thetic system, is somewhat less distorted than the last de- 
partment. By some writers, however, especially ]5ritish, 
It is still absurdly held at loggerheads with the Analytic 
coadjutor just distinguished. J^y others it is excluded 
from its summum genus of Induction, and by others, still 



182 VESTUii:S OF CIVILIZATION. 

ooiifoimdcd with Dcdudion, ils own sub-species. But the 
r(H;lirHt;ili()ii of all such must uow bo tolerably easy after 
this (lolailcMl and ddublo series of* cxj)lauarK)ns. I will 
sum u|), lluMi, this giMieric head in a laiuiliar imago of the 
thrive dej)ailnu>uts; of whieh the llrsl, or JiOgic, might bo 
considered the surveyoi", who describes the new territory 
by measurement und mai)i)iug; the second, or Analysis, 
would then be the pioneer who fells the trees, eradicates 
the stumps, removes the stones or other obstruction to cul- 
tivation ; the last or Synthesis is tlie skilJul agriculturist, 
who ai)i)lies himself to putting together the parts and pro- 
])erties of the soil and combining them with the varying 
conditions of atmosphere, season, climate, so as to reach 
the result of ])roduction, which was the end and aim of 
the whole piocedure. Or otherwise to circumscribe their 
sevt>ral provinces in one word ; they might be said, the 
fust to be expressive, the second explorative, the third 
cx])Iicative. And this explanation implies induction not 
alone of the actualities, but also of the capabilities of na- 
ture. 

§ 35. But what, in fine, does our account of Itiduclion 
proper receive from history in conlirmation, and return in 
correction ? Under the former head there is the para- 
mount attestation of etymology, which here denotes tho 
precise process that had already been demanded by the 
double exigence of our exj)ositions bolli of agent and ob- 
ject. Then the circuuistance, that the process so named 
lias been recognized by its CJ reek inventors, as the earliest 
of artilicial methods, and had long been ])ractised syste- 
matically before the institution of even the Syllogism ; that 
it was received, after ages ol* darkness, ^vith the advent of 
science in the section of j)hysics, but confounded with its 
physical oHice termed Analysis ; and iinally that it is now 
intruded, as conceived in either of those simpler phases, into 
the proper dt)main of Synthesis, the con.stUufion of tho 
sciences. Nothing can bo better proof of its fundamental 
generality than these vicissitudes of obscurity and vaga- 
ries of usur|)ation. But, moreover, the fact itself is at 
last dawning into doctrine. That Induction is the universal 
type of the reasoning process, or rather of all method, is 
a ilistinctive position of the treatise bei()re refeired to, of 
Mr. Mill; indeed the only innovation which he makes 



ANALT^SIB OF tlNlVEUftAL METHOD. 133 

Upon liis prcdoccssorB. This, however (if it really be 
one), HecnriH better offered thfin maintained, and yet more 
plausibly maintained than comjjletely underntood. In 
prorjf J need };ut mention the fact or two above diHCUssed, 
namely, liis utter non-recognition of the progressive nature 
of Jnducti<nj, and tbe conHequent rejection of those rudi- 
mentul forms whicli refused to square with this miscon- 
ception of the j)roceRS ; while at the same time not dis- 
allowing them to be other and subsidiary methods. Tlie 
Deductive sj)ecies, also, — which was too rij>e to be thus 
got rid of, as it lies we see, towards the other extremity 
of the scale — this writer (if I remember well, for I have 
not his book at hand), makes expressly heterogeneous and 
co-ordinate to his Hole type. Such is a slight specimen of 
the confusion and inconsistencies which leave this other- 
wise able book without real " system," not to say science; 
and which are all dispelled l)y the recognition, in the sub- 
ject of method tfjo, of an order of progressive develoj)ment 
such as sketched in tlie foregoing diagram, and previously 
demonstrated to bo the common law of created nature. 

Nor is it only in the classification, which indeed he 
utterly, we see, ignores, but also in the Hourca of inference^ 
which is the l^urthen of his reputed reform, that this fore- 
most of British thinkers in the philosophy of Induction will' 
be found I fear in fundamental error. His theory is that 
inductive inference derives its law •* from particulars."^ 
And this he labours to establish not upon its own positive 
merits, but by placing it in competition with the counter 
doctiine in vogue, which says that inference on tlie con- 
trary, is always "from generals," or as his adversary 
Mr. Whewell has the expression, " from conceptions.'*" 
Now I would first remark that the assumed contrariety is 
quite illusory. The term particulars is here purely and 
even progressively relative ; it applies no less to facts in 
the stage of Jlclation and even of Law, than in the most 
elementary forms of Quality. Thus we have seen, in the 
leading species of each our three Systems of method, that 
Deduction proceeds to unify uj)on particular laws, and 
0})servation u[)on particular relations — sometimes also 
called empirical laws ; just the same as Enumeration did 
upon the simplest impressions of sense. J'esides, we 
know, firom its very nature (ch. 1st), that Perception can 
12« 



184 VESTIOKS OF CIVILIZATIOIf. 

never bo leil iVem any " conccntion" bou'ovor " general" 
to any t'ael however particular but by viewing the Ibrnicr 
lor the instant as a mere unit ; as in short a co-term of the 
resemblance over whicli it passes to the new case. From 
this it seems the so calleil generals may all become ])ar- 
ticulars by a simple reversal of the }>oint of view, and that 
they actually nnist ilo so in the order of induction. Con- 
sequently the theories cited, are, under a nominal oj>posi- 
tion, etfectually identical within certain limits of oscillation ; 
and so to this extent are both to be rated as cviually right 
or ecinally wrong. 

I am compelled to think the latter the true alternative. 
A\'o naturally do not *' always infer from particulars" or 
from *' generals ;" wo never micvjrom eitlier at all. How, 
in fact, coidd unity, in any number, under any name, be 
supposed to yield us the natural law of a new and dilfevent 
phenomenon which, by the hypothesis, we not' merely do 
not know the former to contain in essence, but see posi- 
tively to exclude in appearance ? Or why should not the 
latter, give the law as well to the former, '• particidar?" 
The more an answer to this is meditated the clearer will 
it be found that the pretended axiom oi' JNlr. INlill is no 
less absurd, as a rule of inference, than even the Carte- 
sian archetypes of his opponent. And it is somewhat sin- 
gular that a writer who, in the same pages, had resolved 
the syllogism into a special modification of Induction, 
should not have been jogged by such collisions as, for in- 
stance, the following : If Induction in general be an infer- 
ence " from particulars," how comes it that the syllogism 
refuses, by all the rules, to conclude from a j^artivuhir 
major premiss ; and this even though such premiss might 
include a myriad of individuals l Kither then the al- 
leged species excludes its genus, which were absurd, or 
the genus is ill-conceived, which is conseipiently neces- 
sary. And even the nature of the defect might have 
moreover been suggested by tlie inferential exigence of 
the syllogism. For why does this rcipiire the expression 
to be universal ? Because cxj^rcssion is the subject matter 
of the Logical phase of Induction, and that unity, collec- 
tive or simple, whether in the form of a proposition, a 
principle, or a law, is indispensable to Percei^tion as a 
Ihuis of inference. This basis may be named a particular 



ANALYBIS OF UNIVERSAL MElIIOD. l35 

or a general at pleasure ; it is only csBcntial to di:- tinguish 
that we infer ujion it, \\<)\.frorn. or ))y it. And tbis distinc- 
tion, small in words, but involving tlic matter of many a 
folio, seems to me to describe exactly whatever is not 
physiological, that is to say, instinctive in the operation. 
Of this it is no bad test that the demarkation imparts 
Borne sense at once to both the contending theories before 
us. Thus in beginning with particulars Mr. Mill took the 
right end. For as, though generals become, all, particulars, 
yet all j^articulars cannot be generals, the simple objects 
of Knumeration at least being excluded, it follows ihat 
the particulars must of the two, be the more generic, that 
is, the leading and the formative element. On the other 
hand, their indispensable consolidation from step to step 
finds a vague echo in Mr. Whewell's imaginary " necessity 
for conceptions." Nor is it only in the properly mental 
part of the inferential process that both these writers be- 
tray, unconciously and diveisely, this dim concurrence ; 
they also point to the true principle, which lies behind the 
veil of instinct. This the latter was riglit enough in refer- 
ring to the mind's structure : but he makes the mode of 
operation a sort of shedding of conceptions, somewhat 
after the Epicurean explanation of vision. Mr. Mill ad- 
mits it true, that as a matter of fact we never do pass a 
third " paiticular" without invoking a conception ; but 
where it comes from this more solid thinker very evidently 
did not see, and had the prudence, however compiornis- 
ing to his theory, not to say. And I too, thougli from 
other motives, should perhaps have imitated this example, 
were the explanation not already quite prepared to my 
hand. 

It was encountered in fact at numerous j;oints of the 
preceding exposition : in the combination of the mental 
Processes by threes individually and again of these three 
triads collectively ; in the complication of the nine Cate- 
gories of motion, in the same manner; in the three progres- 
sive stages of their mutual action and reaction, named 
Quality, Kelation, Law — and of which the first we saw 
(§ 14) requires ^Arce instances to constitute the second, this 
at least as many to pass into the third, and law itself de- 
mands, in turn, the same minimum of complication to 
become the positive and proximate basis of science. For 



136' VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION-. 

I trust it need scarce be added that even the three pri- 
mary oi- mathematical laws, though ordinarily considered 
as forming so many distinct sciences, yet could neither of 
them ever constitute a science by itself, and is only so con- 
ceived as being a special aspect of their common group. 
Tiuis Number, with even Quantity superadded, would be 
still a chaos, and the Deity himself must, it seems, call in 
the law of figure to evoke a state of order from the abyss. 
And so, afo7'tiori, of the more dependent laws, whose in- 
terlacements go on progressing in the two succeeding 
triads. What then is this mystic formula which pervades, 
we see, and governs all the conceptions of Mind and all 
the compositions of Motion ? 

In the latter field I continued to note it by the gen- 
eral term of polarity, which had been first given and so 
kept proper, to the middle series of the scale. In the 
former I was content to establish the analoo^ous state of 
facts, without alluding, save for description' sake, to a 
premature exj3lanation. But when the operations of 
Perception came, quite spontaneously, to attach them- 
selves (§ 23) to the organic extremity of the material se- 
ries of Motion and in quality of a pure prolongation of 
its progress, of course the so named polaric principle 
passed ipso facto to the mental scale, by the double right 
of rt 7;?- /or/ reasoning and analytical aj^plicability. In truth 
the latter is completely uniform, and not diflicult to dis- 
cern. The primal law by which the parts of matter have 
been aggregated, progressively, first by atoms and at all 
jmints about a central point of gravitation; next in definite, 
but separate lines about a linear axis as in crystals ; far- 
ther on, about the end of a vertical stem in a horizontal 
plane and by conterminous angles as in the fungi, and even 
with proper modifications, in the ray-fishes of the animal 
world ; these rudimental forms are, I say, precisely analo- 
gous to the aggregations of mental impressions by the three 
Processes of our first Series. And the identity is not less 
clear in the two succeeding departments, which are but 
corresponding complications of this primitive type series, 
in both the direct order of Motion and the reactive order 
of Mind. Induction, too, which is the mode of di- 
recting this reciprocal procedure, presents of course the 
same plan in the three aggregations of the Syllogistic sys- 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 137 

tem, and their scientific expression in the three mathemat- 
ical laws ; and pursues its progress until the circuit of the 
reaction be completed, and universal science becomes elec- 
trical sense. And so I may perhaps venture, in conclu- 
sion, to submit, whether the mental monitor that gives the 
mathematician, after a few steps of his simple inductions, 
the general law of an indefinite series; that gives to many 
of the lower animals the stranger guidance, termed in- 
stinct, unto processes of constant symmetry and places 
before unknown ; that guides quite similarly the human 
animal along to the confines of erring volition, and there 
abandons him free to fluctuate amid an ocean of " con- 
ceptions" which successively rise or vanish with each third 
resemblance in a new line — whether, I say, this agency 
be not described in the following calculable formula : In- 
stinct = the nervous energy with a unilateral polarity such 
as the fibrous or muscular system exhibits in the vegetable ; 
Volition = the nervous energy, set free from tlie earth of 
instinct, and endowed with the loco-motion of a circular 
polarity, around a moveable axis, in all planes ; Induction 
or Reason = this nervous polarity brought into conformity 
enough with nature to allow the progressive accretion of 
truth and excretion of error to take place freely at all its 
opposite poles, and in this way working itself finally into 
scientific harmony with the main magnetic meridian of the 
universe; Relation, Law, Science, or in a single word 
" conception" = the subjective sentiment of these objec- 
tive operations. 

This however, if the reader chooses, may pass for no- 
thing but illustration ; although, for my part, I am well 
convinced of its intrinsic capability to account for every ar- 
ticle of the foregoing theory of Method, and to expose alike 
the opposite errors of Mr. Mill and Mr. Whewell, the in- 
duction " from particulars" and the " explication of con- 
ceptions ;" nay, to do so no less completely than the law of 
gravitation itself explained the coarser but quite conforma- 
ble mechanism of the solar system, and exploded on the 
one hand the epicycles of the astronomers and on the other 
the particular agents of the theologians. But I abstain 
for otlier reasons, in addition to want of space. The pre- 
sent chapter has been protracted beyond the strict exigen- 
cies of my plan, in consideration of the practical import- 



13 S YKSTIGES OF CIVILIZATION, 

!HU"iM>rilio sulijoct ami tlu' jui'ssini;- lUM-i'ssIly for :i finula- 
nuMital rrloMU. 'V\\c main voiul, at loasl, t«) surli ii rt'lonn 
1 viMituro ti) llattor iiivscU'witli liavini;- iiidicatt'd. 'IMna 
ctU<<-t. whalovor it ho, I llu>roloio t)ui;lit not to iniiuMil by 
n rnu> ofp't^*'* ^vi^i*'h. lio\vt>viM- oorrohotativo to poisons 
oapaMo of i(>iu^onini;-, n»is;lit i;ivi> n liaiullo to tlu) lu>!ivy 
ri(liouU> l)y wliioli tljo oroaturt»s oi' rontiiu> wiilho roluo- 
tant against rofonn in all sul»jtH'ls wliatovi^r, hut hi^yond all 
in iho (^xtronioly ahstraor antl viMhal I'ornnilasofniotlHulo- 
logy, tlio latost oovort of soholastioal concoit. Who dooa 
not* know that to a roador of this stanij) my wholo histori- 
cal oonHiinatiou would pass iov nonsonso as soo!i as he foil 
upon tho word pohir'itii in this oonniu'tion? A torm and 
in truth a thini; which havo hi>tMi hitluMto ratluM' foroignto 
tho viows and (ho vocahnlary of jjogioians. To all such 
gnarl-hoadod jnulants and oross-grainod critics without 
]H>laiitY, 1 thori'loro protest I only moan thoir moro iinni- 
liar aociuaintanco, a moro iiguro of sptu^-h. 1 nt)w pass to 
\\\c roniaining riM|uisitt\s of Iho analysis in this dopartmont. 
§ ;i(>. 'lMu\so aro t)nly two, and ma)' hi> now dispatch- 
ed in (o\y words. In accordanco with goiunal nsago, I 
havo hithorto considorod mothod as conunoncing with tho 
last of tho throo forms of Oonco])tion (§18), with tho third 
or Rational Sorios of the IMonlal Procossos. Desirous to 
exhibit, onco for all, n subject so mutilated and misappre- 
hended in tho systematic integrity of its purely scientilic 
sphere, I have taken up tho process whore it enters, really 
or pri>fessedly, npiui positive phenomena and their throe- 
folil uniformiru»s. lUit bt^foro reaching this ]n»int of view 
it nuist havo i)assod, as accordingly outlined (§;M) through 
the two anterior phastvs termed \italand \'olitional. Now, 
tho largest part inconiparably of human action and specu- 
lation being tho product, to this hour, of thosi> j)ro|)aratory 
principles, it is indispensable to tho strictest trial ol our his- 
torical explication that the scale should bo slidden back- 
waitls oviu" both tlu>so primitive periods. As 1 said, how- 
ever, we aro allowed to be concise, by a concurrence of 
circumstances. Tho specifications of gratlation ri>spect- 
ing Quality, 1\ elation, Law, aro in large part precluded 
by the necessary fact, that only the first could have possi- 
bly boon conceived in the Vital, and tho first and second 
iii lUe Volitional, ages of Induction, llcuco of course a 



ASKLYHIH OF IJMVKriHAL MfcTJlOO. loO 

curtailment jiIho of tljo Generic Sybtern-^ to the Hfirne ex- 
tent; tlio Lo^ca) (in its merely Byntneiic stagr;) being 
alone developefl in tlie firnt, an^l tlie Analytic in addilion, 
in the necond oiWif.Ha e|jo<;}iH ; whereaH the Rational Ufi<; of 
Indiiction urjfoldH all three, hh above fleHcribed. J5ijf, more- 
over, tlje <leHcri|>lion refrjrred to (io(;H in all ilH detail of 
Hpeci(;H,}jut reju-oflijce an exact ima^e of the name triad 
of co-o[)(;ratir)rjH, which, enveloping themselveH refrogroH- 
hivrjly thn^ugh the Heveral Serie.H and SyHtcmn, vanish ulti- 
mately into coincidence with the three Conceptual cycleH. 
And cfnjHcqnently the preceding ex[)OHilion of the tljird 
and ri|jeHt will apply alike, upon occa8ion, to the Hubdi- 
viHion.s of the other two. it in only, therefore, these fun- 
damental formH them.selves — (by the way a KUfjreme triad 
which again, wc hoo, bcarH profound tCHtimorjy in tliis 
laBt analyHifi of Method a« in t}io«e of Matter arjd of 
Mind, to the truth of the threefold division of the present 
theory and treatiHc) — it \h only thene 1 nay, tljat now re- 
main to be explained or characterized. 

I>ijt thiH 1 alno fir)d to be irj Home degree antirjpated, at 
the clone of the firHt chapter and tlie commencement of the 
preHent. In the former place the three Cyclen, regfirded 
in their merjtal anj^ect, are referred reH[jectiv(;ly toth(; three 
j)rincipleH of Life, Volition, and JteaKon. Jn the order of 
Method thfjy werrj dcKcribed, as proceeding, corre.spon- 
dently, upon W(;rdH, ujjon CauKCH, and upon Effects. Of 
thcj.se the generic thr(;efold forms were alno designated 
on that (occasion, and were named as i'oUowH, in the two 
first types, which alone are now to be considered. Jn tho 
former they are : Names, or words connecting distinct 
Bonsations with the same substance; Terms, or words con- 
necting distinct substances with tho same attribute ; and 
Sentences, or worrls connrjctirjg both attributes and sub- 
stances into aggregates about a centre imagined to bo 
tlicir source : Jn the article of Causation (resulting spon- 
taneously, we see, from the notion oi' source), the connective 
forms are Divinities, or personified vitalities HWf»posed 
to produce tho changes of tlie verbally-grouped pheno- 
mena ; Entities, or occult forces in the objects them- 
selves which resist the gods hy the recurrences of change; 
and IJniversals, which fiirther unify the several entities 
and divinities into a series of powers or forms, submitted 



110 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

liiKilly to a sovon^igii typo. Siicli, tlioii, are tlio facts, rs 
oslablisliod iiuliriH'lly, t)l' llio long siu'cossioii ofoxpodieiita, 
or as Ivanl wouKl call llicni noumcna, by wliich Porcoption 
has ossnyctl, in tho two cycles of illusion, to sini[>lify the 
pheuoniena of nature. !So that there seems wanting but 
ihe seal of tho rationale. 

§ 37. And even this is already prepared in the well-es- 
tablished axiom, that man can reason, or even imngine, but 
from the known to tho unknown. l>ut man himself ap- 
peared the least unknown of all phenomena at first. Such 
self-knowledge would, of course, amount to little moro 
than tho simple notion, of possessing a latent power to 
effect motion in himself and other things. Between this 
dim consciousness of vital force, however, and its external 
manifestations he felt perhaps the first germ of relation ; 
he thereby found a rule, wherewith he proceeded, right 
inductively, te the primary interpretation of nature. All 
objects exhibiting changes, whether of position or form, 
woro inevitably indued with the only known force of 
life; at first individually, grailually by groups. And this 
rude aggregation found an obvious and natural medium, 
in tho common contact of all tho contents with the earth, 
for that primeval generalization of the diversities of mo- 
tion, called characteristically the " anima mundi" or life 
of tho world. Tho part of language in denoting these 
mystic sources of operation had long after got the namo 
of J\Iytln)logy ; which, etymologically and therefore origi- 
nally meant the '* art and mystery" of Words. And hence 
the method-derived designation of the first Cycle. 

§ :)S. Init early in this rude procedure the human 
mind, however crude or uncritical, would become sensi- 
ble that names could combine but motions of a certain 
kind, namely, either the perpetual, or periodical, or uni- 
form though occasional ; such as those of rivers, the sea- 
sons, the sun, moon, planets, cVc. Accordingly these have 
been the earliest objects of religious veneration, because 
they were tho easiest media of infant generalization — 
things which have always stood to each other in the rela- 
tion of cause and elVect. Init the vast majority of visible 
motions, both physical and organic, appearing, in time, to 
be eccentric to such forces as tho above, and irregularly 
variable in respect to the same circumstances, it was re- 



AKALYKIS OF UNIVERSAL MKTlKjlJ. I4l 

qulsite to simplify by analysis; it was uccesBory to fiud 
an agorit tliat vonhl be conceived lo effect ihoKC changes, 
in even their wihicst diversity, witliout l:)eing contradic- 
tory to itHclf. And for tlji.s new ty[jo there was, of course, 
the sanie necessity tljat instinct should recur lo conscious- 
ness, lierc it found, in fact, now prepare! for it, the 
igtjis fatuus called the Will. The former rule respected 
rnrjtion in Its bare concrete manifestation without attend- 
ing to rpiality or condition, and the vital force, v/hich was 
the ordy known original<jr of such changes, would be thus 
considered, at the most with modifications of mere quan- 
tity, as affording a satisfact(jry exphination. But when the 
actions came to be viewed in res[)r;ct to order and appli- 
cation it was found, by rcjlactiim, that there was also a force 
of this kind in man himself, whereby lie prosecuted what 
he called a plan or design. This development consisted 
in the sentiment of a second relation, superadded to that 
between the external motion and the vital force, and 
through which the latter was now perceived to be directed 
and controlled. And in this way was completed the elec- 
tric circuit of vital reaction which constitutes what in man 
is deemed the "freedom " of the Will. Now this pliant 
notic>n of a free will was just the tiling to remove all diffi- 
culties. So far from being embarrassed by the most law- 
less eccentricity, irregularity was its very element, as it 
had been its occasion. For this imaginary freedom was 
a negation of all order, upon v/liich alone, indeed, as a 
positive basis, it was capable of being conceived ; even as 
the same dependence was bef<jre remarked, in both the 
analysis of mind and method, under the equivalent desig- 
nations of resemblance and difference. With this second 
agency the work of unification proceeded anew ; begin- 
ning, of course, with the outstanding anomalies to the 
former force, but ending necessarily with subjecting all 
things to a sole sovereign will. From the nature of this 
moral force, then, it is plain it could not be attached, like 
its physical predecessor, to verbal symVjols ; it could re- 
side only in a race of spiritual, that is to say, negative per- 
sons, in whom the operative wills would be supposed to 
inhere, and who presided over the objects and produced 
the phenomena. These objective reflections of man's 
own personality would therefore pass through the pro- 
Id 



l-4"2 VF.8Ti(;i:8 of civilization". 

grcssivo i;tMUMali/.;uion jusl (IosimUhuI : ;uul lu nco in i'ai't 
liio liost oi' 'u\(\c\)vudv\\l tliviuiiios >vhicli luo known lo 
ihrono ihi^ lunw m oToarly luMtlioii tlioology, and wliicli later 
aiv transmutoil int»> anools. vVr., by tl»o y/zoz/o-thcisni that 
j>iirnionnts and lhn:s snpplants ihoni. Ami as tlioy suc- 
coodod to llic names, ot'coniso, as well as iunelions oftlic 
tornier forces, it was but ni)rnial tliat heathen theology 
should inherit the title of *' mythology " — a most signiii- 
caiit eonlirmation of this deduction. 

Again as motions, changes, events wouKl li\ attention 
in rude ages only lor their inlUuMice, real or imagined, 
upon the welfare or misery tU'man, the presiding pi)wcrs 
would be corresj>ondingly divided into demons good and 
evil, and ultimately nnilied, of courst% into a CJood Princi- 
ple, and Kvil Principle, or as our idiom has abridged tho 
phrase, tlie iJod and the Devil. WIumi the hurtful elfects 
jiredomiiuUed. as in tho wretched condition of the savage, 
the evil class of divinities wi)uld bo venerated through 
tear, and their supposed wrath be appeased by otVerings anil 
sacrifices ; they would also be thus bribed lo execute man's 
mahco against his fellow\^, an object always next in inter- 
<?st to averting malice from himself But as agriculture 
and society gained upon the forest and tho lent, the good 
.principle was thought lo have trium])hed over the devil 
^nd all his angt^ls ; and man. who in his veriest visions is 
a sycophant of power, transferred his principal allegiance 
to the rising sun oi' tho new era. The benefits of social 
life being }>erceiveJ to be artificial, and thus the results of 
pre-arrangements of volition, \he gods supposed to bestow 
them were worship}>ed, on the other hand, through hope, 
and endowed, as their leading attribute, with a beneficent 
l^ovidenco. The first desire was, then, to know what the 
patron divinity had 7»/-or/(7<'r7; and hence tho arts which 
compose the first ;«cM^J of theological inquiry, and which 
I comprise under the general name of Divination. But 
according as the interpreters, or their betters the events, 
showed the provision to be adverse, or insufiicient, re- 
course would be had to deities more }>owerful as well as 
propitious. This would end, as before shown, in estab- 
lishing one as the sole sovereign ; who, taught by the fate 
of his predecessors in wrecking their credit against the 
laws of nature, would lake care to promulgate a code of 



ANALYSIS OF LMVEUSAL METHOD. 143 

laws of his own fabric, a declaration or Testament of Di- 
vine Will. This is the second and more strictly theological 
method, and to which I retain the current name of Reve- 
lation. Notwithstanding the precaution alluded to, of 
standing aloof firom the course of realities (of which, by 
the way, the inde{)ondonce is now conceded for the first 
time, in the very fact of callijjg the claim to supersede 
tliem a " a power oi' jnlracles,''^) — in spite of this, 1 say, the 
prophets, who conveyed the revelations, would, through 
the natural as well as inspired enthusiasm of their prcjmises 
and the carnal conceptions of their believers, be lead inevi- 
tably to embroil tlic matter anew : and then the recourse- 
would be to the institution of priests and prayers to keep the- 
Deity to his written word, or make him better than his 
essential will. In order to which it would finally become 
plain that the free expansion of his beneficence must be 
adjourned to a spiritual future, and so his "kingdom"' 
would be gradually withdrawn from this wicked world. 
In propoilion to this retreat of ages along the gradations 
of the phenomenal scale, the divinities are rej)laced by 
entities or essences; that is, perhaps, volitions abstracted 
^I'ovci YtGv^on'dWty, suh posed in objects themselves, to ac- 
count for their dark resistance. Hence the name of Hy-^ 
pothesis appropriated to the third method, though in ac- 
cord with the general law, it includes as well, we see, the- 
two preceding ; all three going upon assumption of cer- 
tain immaterial media, behind and beyond the sensible 
world itself, from which Induction wields the universe 
with the magic lever of prediction, that is, tries its "'pren- 
tice hand " at analytical exploration. And hence our 
corresponding Cycle takes the epithet of ikZetephysical. 

§ 38. It is, I may add, tlie neutral ground so rescued 
inch after inch by the facts of inflexible constancy from 
the hypothesis of arbitrary causation, that S(K)n solidifies 
into the basis of relations among ejfeeU, upon which com- 
menced our special survey of Method in its Rational 
phase, and which characterizes as Scientific the fitial cycle 
of civilization. 

vSo that here again we find the theory as round and. 
regular as usual. And all this, I repeat, by a route not 
only psychologically necessary, but perfectly induclicc in 
the procedure. For it is a corollary of the Mind's sim- 



144 "\ESTIGE6 OF CIVILIZATIOX. 

plicity that it must always reason or infer consequently^ 
how much soever the premises be incoherent or illusory. 
It is only the vulgar who wonder at this seeming logical 
acuteness in a child or a savage or even a n:>aniac ; for the 
intelligent wonder would have been that it were ever 
known to happen otherwise. Yet it seemed, in England, 
not many years ago, to amount to a discovery, when the 
Advocate, Erskine, argued oracularly that the power of 
logical illation was not necessarily destroyed or even im- 
paired by insanity ; but that the derangement affected the 
premises alone. An observation certainly creditable to 
the maker in the circumstances ; not forgetting among the 
latter the proverbial fealty of his countrymen, which of 
course adjured him to the philosophical gospel of Scotch 
metaphysics. Be that as it may, it is now demonstrated 
that the mental infancy of the race and even its illusory 
insanity have reasoned Yighily J)-o?}i what tlieyhnew — even 
as the needle is always true to its principle of polarity, amid 
a multitude of variations in traversing the globe — -and that 
the result was inevitably such as just delineated. 

As this conclusion will be tested practically in the histor- 
ical survey of heathenism, I will here advert to but one co- 
incidence, already encountered on our way ; I mean the 
transition of the term mythology from the etymological to 
its actual iiuport. I am not aware that this has hitherto re- 
ceived a rational explanation. And that the present may 
claim the title is confirmed by its capability of explaining, 
in turn, some of the most curious of problems. For instance, 
that of Vico respecting the origin of language, which he sup- 
posed was derived from the nGmenclature of the heathen 
gods. Perceiving these to be abundantly numerous (the 
Roman quota being according to Varro as high as thirty 
thousand), and unable to see beyond them into primeval 
antiquity, he very naturally mistook the derivative for the 
primitive use of words. Have we not witnessed (§ 10), 
that, even in the full light of the historical era, both the 
Christian monks and the Scotch metaphysicians have done 
essentially the same or worse % In fine, the fact of the 
first metamorphosis might appeal to no less an authority 
than that of the inspired prophet of Patmos himself; and 
thus would teach the theologians, who think him some- 
what of a rhapsodist, to see the profound although literal 



ANALi'SIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. l45 

trulh (in this case, profound because literal) which lies be- 
fore their dull eyes in the well-known exordium of his 
gospel. For we see how true it is to the very letter, that : 
"J/^ the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God." Here are the beo-inninsf, 
the middle, and the end of our alleged transition ! It is 
but candid, however, to own that St. John is said to have 
dealt freely in the cabalistic phraseology of the East, where 
the transformation had been transmitted through the hu- 
man channels of tradition. 

§ 39. I can still imagine the occurrence of an honest ob- 
jection to the foregoing principle, and which I am bound, 
of course, if possible to remove. It would be now ad- 
mitted that the mythological and metaphysical ages must 
have proceeded, like the scientific, from the known to the 
unknown. But how, it may be asked, could man have 
been the first criterion of conception, if the knowledge of 
him has been rightly classed as the consummation of 
science ? The answer was partly indicated in the ante- 
penultimate section, when explaining that the self-know- 
ledge in question implies no more than the dim sentiment,, 
at first of a simple force to produce motion or change ex- 
ternally, and later, of a second force, supposed to operate- 
internally and control the rest or action of the former. Now 
this was, in both instances, a thing of mere consciousness ;: 
in the first, a grade o? knowledge probably common to most 
animals, which also doubtless imagine life in every unfa- 
miliar motion. Moreover, these primary notions of physi- 
cal and moral force are not only instinctive but individual^ 
and thus effectually fall under the simplest or numerical 
grade of conception. Whereas, the knowledge of man; 
which science contemplates, involves a survey of entire 
nature. This broad distinction would probably suffice for 
the present occasion. But the error to which it refers is 
too pervasive and perverse not to warrant a more explicit 
exposure. 

The elements of this, too, lie prepared (alone, I befieve) 
in the foregoing pages. I refer to the principle of division, 
observed in the first and second chapters, the opposition 
between the order of Knowledge and the order of Na- 
ture. Also to the real occasion of this universally perplex- 
ing contrast (§ 27), in the starting point of the knowing 
13* 



14 > VfiSTlOK!? OV OlVll.lZATlOK. 

agent at iho mnhrr oxtromily ol' tho Hoiural scale. 
From tliis it t^eomtul to loUow uccossaiily tluit luinmn 
Knowlodgo must niaUo two circuits — \\\\o\\ Kcscjublnnce 
aiul upon Dillcrcuco — botovo lalliuij: intt) tlic oitlcr of 
creation, which alone is tlio phuu> of Science. In ttnnis 
of our general anah)iiY. (u may Wi^ not call it exphuiatitni, 
that Percepticui as a prolongation o( the ])rogress of Mo- 
tion, must be repelled by the like polarities of the conti^ 
guous cntl atiustnuM, anJ of course attracted concurrently 
towards tlu' oppi^site and unlike extjcmity ; that the whole 
cycle of this double tendency nuist consist of two depurt- 
meuls, divided by the liueof maxinuim divergency, where 
llie physiological polarity nmst pass from positive to nega- 
tive, the Inductive polarity from resemblance to dilVerence, 
the CiMiceptual pvdarily from physical force or Life \o 
spiritiud force i>r Will; that, in liiu^ Percejilion is lhut» 
brought round into the nuiin meridian of the Universe at 
its^xAv/V/rt- pole — which leads to science — by the formation, 
through ct)untless centuries, of the grand ** conductor" we 
name knowledge, and o( which llu> molecides are human 
minds and the mechanism is Society. It is visible therelbre, 
how man, aUhough the most complex of natural objects, 
not only could, but should inevitably be the lirst thing 
*• known" to himself, but known according to the infant 
calibre of his purely simple Perception. That is to say, 
he would progressively recognize in his own body the 
primary qualities of unity, bulk, shape and self-motion, 
and witli them must attribute the associate consciousness 
of vitality to all bodies, however inanimate, that should ex- 
hibit latent motion ; and in the second period, the pheno- 
mena of latent motion or invisible force would prompt 
him similarly to rvjlcct upon himself for a second type, and 
to give the corresponding t^bjects into the guidance of a 
Soul or W^ill, which, accordingly, do^vn to iSewton, held 
the prime place of gravitation. 

1 am aware that I have said or shown all this substan- 
tially over and over. J>ut I only fear it will not be too 
mucli for the profound ignorance on the subject which not 
only pervades the whole literature, even scientific, of our 
language, and produces the chaos above exposed in the 
region of method, but perverts, almost to preposterousness, 
the logical views of our fust philosophers. 1 will close, in 



AXALiSIh OF LT.lVLlihAl. iJJ//HOlJ. 147 

yiooi', witli a Binglo cxjirnplo, wbicli i» ako relevant to the 
general ]>rirj(;iple. One of the most reputed of the philo- 
BopherH alluded to, and author of <jur .sole treatise on the 
ftubject of lndu<;tive Science, citeH, ] recollect, from Aris- 
totle for comment the folh^wing axiom : " We must always 
proceed from the known to tlie unknown ; we must pro- 
ceed thj'ri'J'(rr('. from uniccrnat \i) 'j^cifticulor.^^ The fiiht of 
thene propowitionH Mr, VV'heweli of course admitH. But of 
the second he ridiculoH the inft^rence, and reverseH the 
order. Now in both I think he does ignorantly — if 1 may 
allow mynelf an uncourteouHpropiiety of'expreBHion towards 
one wh<j i,s, him.sclf, no very cerernoniou.s censor. The 
•♦ Univer.sal.s" of Aristotle are in reality the relations 
which 1 have deemed the mont simpif; or general ; that is, 
in fact, all relatifU)s, with re.spect to thohe below them, as 
far as common characteristically to any one of our nine cate- 
gories : this striking correHpondence was p<jinted out above 
in comparing the categories of Aiistolle. J5ut tliat this 
order of simplicity is al.so the order of knowledge has been 
just illustrate 1 in the last paragraph, and was formally es- 
tabli.shed in the second chapter, Thf.*re it appearei that 
Number is the simplest of all relalions, and individuality 
now seems necessarily to be the earlie.=it of all notions. It 
is true that, in the former case, tlje relution is considered 
objectively and in the utmost extension of lavj, wljile in 
the latter it lurks in the dim suljjectivity of mere quality. 
But this is no difference to the purpose. It is no difjerence 
of opposition, but, on the contrary, of degree, or rather it 
is a difference of mere time ; for the quality is the germ- 
point which is to traverse the line of law, and effectively 
to generate it to human cognoscence. And this, it were ab- 
surd to think, it ever could have done, unless placed by nature 
upon the all-connecting track of number. And so of the 
other relations successively. The inference of Aristotle, 
from the Known to the universal, is, therefore, not only just 
in fact, but almost identical in affirmation, and his order of 
procedure is of course a necessary corollary. Another 
deep concurrence for our theory to l;e proud of, in a 
question at least of i^oj^ical method. 

The error of Mr. VVhevvell is multiplex : First, iu sup- 
posing the words " particular" and " universal" to relate 
to stages of progression in our kiiowledi^e of the same 



148 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

law, instead of stages of subordination among the various 
laws of the universe ; that is, the Savage arithmetic of three 
he would call a " particular" in Number, although what 
the precise amount which should go to make the " uni- 
versal" he is doubtless a mathematician too well read to be 
able to say : Secondly, in not discerning that his misappli- 
cation of the terms is actually coincident with the order he 
contradicts ; for, if perception does proceed, an account of its 
primal position,y>ww the *' particular" end of the scale of 
nature, it is equally necessitated, by its intrinsic simplicity, 
to proceed tqwyi the most " universal" or simple of her 
laws : Finally, in implying, absurdly, that the law is less 
a " universal" for being primaiily " known" under the 
aspect of mere Quality — which were to say that the direc- 
tion of education or inquiry, things essentially accidental to 
each individual, may not only override the general order 
of nature but authorize as many criteria o{ method and of 
s:ience ! And this, I affirm, is no error of inference, but 
a dogmatic theory, the doctrine of " private judgment" 
and "conscience," in metljodology. 

Nor is the monstrosity peculiar, as ought well indeed to 
be supposed, to our sole Historian and Philo*>opher of In- 
ductive science. It is common, as far as I know, to every 
writer of his country; as may be judged of from the fact 
that it constitutes the very lallacy upon which the opposite 
extremes of English opinion as to the principle of Induc- 
tion wore seen to run into each other, and out of reason, at 
the same time. In short this artificial strife of individualism 
against nature is the rule of method and education through- 
out entire Anglo-Saxondom: which may possibly be the rea- 
son why " scholars and gentlemen" are so plentiful, while 
thinkers and men are rather rare. 'J'o this wretched med- 
ley INIr. AVhewell merely adds the inconsistency, of run- 
ning a tilt against the Stageryte in championship of " par- 
ticulars," while he was seen above, on the other hand, op- 
posed to Mr. Mill, in quality of Platonic plenipotentiary of 
the antagonistical " conceptions." I should explain, how- 
ever, that if British philosophers remain deeper than their 
French neighbors in this transitive chaos between efl'ete and 
infant epochs of Knowledge, it seems in great part due to 
the reverence, more repectable than rational, for the log- 
ical authority of Bacon ; which chains them to the Analytic, 



ANALV6I8 OF UNIVEKSAL MElIfOL. 149 

or as they call it expeiimental, grades of ludurtloij — 
methods only fitted for dinpersion not cornbinalion, for 
exploration not construction, in short at best for burrowing 
not for l)uilding. 

§ 40. Tliere are also some other terms which it will be 
both essential to our future course and confirmative of the 
past to snatch, in passing, from the confusion. What 
writer of newspaper paragraphs does not keep at his fin- 
gers' ends the epithets simple and complex, general and 
special, concrete and abstiact? And yet what reader of 
English philosophy may pielend to possess in his head a 
clear conception of theii- distinctions or definitions? For 
myself, I own I have learned this (as well as most else of 
the little I know) for the first time in the process of pen- 
ning the present pages. And the reader, not Vjefbre more 
fortunate, who has read them with some attention, will now 
need, I trust, no lengthy explanation. 

1. If contemplated objectively or in their positive, their 
real relations, all the phenomena of nature are, as proved 
in the preceding chapter, found to class themselves into 
an order of diminishing simplicity. A class, a relation is 
accounted more or less simple, according as applicable to 
a laiger or lesser diversity of subjects. For instance, all 
things imaginable, mental as well as material, are amenable 
to the relation of Number; whereas, Figure is already 
restricted to the sphere of the corporeah Number is 
therefore said to be the more simple of the two relations 
(as it is indeed the most so of all whatevei ). Figure, for 
the contrary reason, is called the more complex. And so 
correlatively throughout the higher complications. 

2. Viewing the same phenomena subjectively, or in 
reference to the mind conceiving them, they also fall into 
an order of diminishing generality. We call more or less 
general such as include fewer or more elements, whether 
in the stage of quality, of relation, or of law. Thus the 
law of number containing but one, is, therefore, the most 
general of all phenomena. Sensation holds the same rank 
in the re-active order of intellection. Like number, it is 
a simple succession of points. But it is the generator of 
all the lines of mind, as the former is of the lines of mo- 
tion. It is consequently the most general of the Processes 
of Perception; is absolutely common, indeed, to all ani- 



150 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

iiKils wliatcver. Memory, which associates with it the 
relation oi' place, and Imagination, which conjoins time, 
are progressively less comnu)n in nature ov rather its ani- 
mal department, and so are said to he less general and 
more special, in proportion. 

3. There is yet a third recognition of this natural 
series. It turns, harmoniously, on the intermediate order 
between the extreme subjective and objective, and denotes 
phenomena as passing progressively (through our now 
familiar stages of Quality, Relation, and Law), from the 
apparent state of individual affections of matter, to the real 
state of universal operations of motion. Surveyed in 
this march of method along the natural scale, they are 
called, correlatively, less concrete and more abstract. 
Thus number, which is absolutely inseparable from all 
matter, is consequently the most concrete, as well as sim- 
ple, of all laws. Sensation, which holds the same priority 
in the section of animal matter, is also the most concrete 
as well as general oi' mental laws. The notions oi' Quantity, 
on the one hand, and Memory, on the other, make already 
a lirst step in Abstraction ; they can be separated men- 
tally, the one from substance, the other from sense. Fig- 
ure and Imagination ofter obviously a finther step in sep- 
arability, as well as specialty and complication. It is not, 
however, till the next stage, which begins the second 
series, that Abstraction obtains the preponderance in com- 
plete extrication. This it docs, we kntnv, in the invisible 
power or Process of Ixeiiection, ihvough iho 7 ?i risible me- 
dium or Method of Observation, applied to the iftvisihh 
motion of pressure or Force. And the step is equally 
gradual; the inclination of a poised balance ; a distinction 
of the Different, a negation of the Material. Accordingly 
it gives its name to the middle Process of this Series, and 
its opjirobrium to the Cycle of Metaphysics ; for with the 
aid of the just preceding and plastic hand of Imagina- 
tion, Reflection throws out a shadowy, or spiritual counter- 
part of the real world, whicli it peoples with " gorg(ms 
hydras, and chimeras dire," as well in the logical as the 
theological order. It must not, however, be thought, be- 
cause of its signal prominence in this second epoch, that 
abstraction is not progressive, like specialty and complex- 
ity, to the end of the scale. Such seeming eminence 



ANALVBIS OF UNIVKKBAL iJE'llIOD. lol 

is like so many otherH, a mere illunion of non-development. 
It Ls that the masH of mankind, in even the most enli;^ht- 
ened nations, liave an yet attained no farther than ihc 
grade of abhlractions described. But the fact that these 
are now distinguished and stigmatized as " Metaphysical," 
speaks a growing feeling of other abstractions, which may 
be rational and real. Such are, in fact, the laws of the 
three succeeding categories, Perce[)tion being the most 
abstract and so the least concrete of the entire scale. 

Concrete, General, Simple ; Abstract, Special, Complex, 
these three j^airs of corresponding and correlative teims 
have, then, been ai>proj)riuted, by the sure inslinct of 
popular language, to the respective series, as now assign- 
ed, of Method, Mind, and Matter. And what a testimony 
to the reality of these three grand factors in nature, as 
well as to the fidelity of the foregoing delineation ! While 
the latter more than repays the superfluous confirmation, 
by the light of order and intelligibility which it reflects 
uprm the confusion, that makes, at present, those unhappy 
epithets a sort of servants of all work. This confusion it 
is now nee less to specify. I do not speak of the common 
interchange of the co-ordinate terms, such as Concrete for 
Simple, or Special for Complex, &:c. This is a natuial and 
no very injurious consequence of the intimate conformity 
between the three aspects of the same phenomena. Jjut it is 
(juite otherwise when the conformity is broken itjto opposi- 
ti<jn. Nothing more common, for instance, than to speak of 
kSimple, as opposed to General, relations ; and of Con- 
crete, as something different from either. Also, on the other 
hand, the words Abstract and Complex are rarely, I think, 
employed in a line. But vi'orse than dislocating the co- 
ordination, the correlation is itself reversed. This cli- 
max of the perversity seems most conspicuous in the 
term Abstract, which is almost universally made a syno- 
nym with General, instead of Special; and Concrete is simi- 
larly biuught into cross connection with Complex. Thus 
our school books and philosophers speak liabilually of 
mathematics as not only abstract, but the most abstract of 
sciences. Whereas we see they are on the contrary the mo.st 
concrete. I wonder it can be overlooked that Number 
and C^uantity, being manifestly the first notions conceived 
by children and savages, they could scarcely be the most 



152 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

abstract, and not the most concrete, of relations. So that 
the keen wit of the English poet would seem to have been 
better informed, some two centuries ago, when he men- 
tions, among the scholastic exploits of Hudibras, that he 
"** could abstract numbers out of matter." I quit the 
wretched chaos with a still more fundamental sample. 

4. According as the sciences become, as they do su- 
premely towards the end of the scale, at once most Com- 
plex in the phenomena, and so most Special in their as- 
pects, and consequently most Abstract in their methods, 
the operation of Synthesis, which puts the finishing hand 
to all science, becomes progressively conspicuous in the 
results. The destined results, it is well known, are to 
give abstract or ideal unity to the multifarious elements 
explored preparatively by Analysis. Now as the multi- 
tude augments, X\\e jjutting together grows more striking, 
the universalizing process more magical, as it were, in its 
simplification. But from ft'nnplijication to simj^Ucity there 
is but a paronymous fallacy. And hence the confusion of 
the " Universal" with the Simple and *' first-known." This, 
I am persuaded (through but a j^riori) could have been in 
Aristotle nothing more than a mere verbal misapplication ; 
for the import of Universal, as now explained, is of recent 
development, and it is certain he used the term in the 
sense of Simple and General. But in Mr. Whewell who, 
with his age's knowledge of the higher complexities of 
method, only reverses and realizes the mere misnomer he 
fails to detect, by transferring the notion of General to the 
side of Universal — in Mr. W. I say, the transgression is 
nothing less than the gross confusion of the two extremi- 
ties of the conceptual or methodical scale. So far in fact 
are these terms from being in any sense synonymous, that 
they are logical as well as chronological opposites of each 
other. Universality commences where Generality ends. 
The latter is objective and real even in the subjective state 
of Quality; the former subjective and ideal even in the 
objective state of Law. The one is in nature; the other 
is in man. Ilence we say, of the natural laws, includ- 
ing of course the mental Processes, that they are relatively 
more or less G eneral ; but it can no more be said that they 
are more or less Universal than each other, than it could, 
of circles or squares, that they are 7nore ov less rowxiii or 



XN^AO'SK OF UXI7£:RSAL METHOD. loS 

trng-dlar. In fact the categories of our scale are all equally 
Universal, the law of Life, no doubt, as strictly as that of 
Number ; while they are each, we have seen, unequally 
simple, that is General. Finally, the terms look to con> 
trary goals, the former im.plying a tendency from the 
parts to the whole, the latter from the whole to the parts. 
It is once more, we see, the opposite poles of an Inductive 
magnetism; the one positive, indefinite, Concretive or 
Generative ; the other negative, determinate. Abstractive, 
and Uniform.ative : the former ever tending, by the intro- 
duction of foreign matter, to the alteration and destructioa 
of the system ; the latter labouring to conserve it, by assim- 
ilation and excretion. And such is the exact picture not 
only of method in all its forms, but of man himself in all 
his functions, vital, m.oral, and intellectual ; of his individ- 
ual history from infancy to dissolution, of his national his- 
tory from barbarism to civilization, of his logical history 
from sensation up to science ; in one word, of his entire 
social, as well as of his solar, system. But to keep to our 
humbler instance of this universal antagonism, it is pro- 
foundly preserved, as usual, in the etym.ology : for the term 
Oeneral (as so often exemplified) importing primitively 
procreation, implies procession of the parts from a whole ; 
and Universal {versus unum) declares no less expressly 
a procession of the whole from its parts. Nor need the 
reader be reminded of the singular coniirmation contribut- 
ed by the form.er root to our explanation of Life and Will, 
as the great generators, the parent types, of successive 
epochs of conception. Nor of the parting flash of light 
which both the terms, in their polar contrast, fling con- 
temptuously upon the conflict between the leading theories 
of Induction : a conflict which consists, we have seen, in 
setting at intestine war the complementary halves of the 
process, and under pretext, or (to hint no question of the 
candour of the authors) m the firm faith, that each half was 
the whole thing. 

It remains to note the result, v/ith respect to Univer- 
sal, that this expression also is supplied with a correlative ; 
and which mxay now be rationally recognized in the trite 
term " particular." The latter is, of course, opposed to Spe- 
cial, &;c., in the same manner as the two principals. Fi- 
aally, there are two other pairs which just appeal to me for 
14 



151 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOX. 

onfrniu'O, aiul will sij^nificaiitly take ibo opjiosito siilos. I 
mean Oolloctivo aiul Iiuliviiliial, wbifh iiitUcnto, lospoc-tivo- 
ly, u sectional view, as \t were, o{ I Universal and rarticiilar. 
The second pair is Common and Proper, of which tho 
concurrence with General and Special, is eijually close 
and characteristic : for phenomena are in all grades ac- 
counted more or less General not only in proportion as, 
but for the reason that, they are more or less Common 
(§ 22) ; though it would scarce bo grammar, not to say 
philosophy, to go on with the current confusion, and call 
them more or less Collective or Universal. 

§ o9. Having written with entire freedom (a block- 
head might style it ilippancy, not distinguishing one who 
censures by rational ctniclusion from those who do so by 
personal conceit), having written, I say, thus freely of my 
superiors, in all ages, exposing their illusions, exj)laining 
their errors, in short, proposing a fundamental revolution 
of all their labours, I feel unal>le to dismiss the subject, 
without offering them, deail or living, the sole apoh>gy not 
disrespectful to those who labour for truth alone, it is to 
«how summarily ic/u/ they have not, why they could not 
have, done better, and to own that if the present effort 
should prove warranted in its pretensions, it will bo mainly 
from the writer's position upon tho shoulders of his pre- 
•decessors, where he could profit at the same time by their 
successes and their failures ; but partly also (he may pre- 
sume, since there are others on the same vantage ground) 
from, the happy accident of his theoretical point of view. 

The obstacle alluded to had been recognized by the 
gi*eat Bacon, where he speaks of Truth as tho daughter 
■of Time. But the meaning thus expressed, because ap- 
prehended, but poetically, has now received its philoso- 
phical explanation. The growth (as it would be termed 
more strictly still than the birth) of truth is, we see, an 
aggregate eHect of the three factors of all knowledge ; a 
necessary consequence of the proo;ressive complexity in 
nature, the proportional complication of mind, and tho 
primordial juxtaposition of the two series at hostile ends, 
which adds the preliminary task of a twofold adjustment, 
to the positive operations of method. To the length and 
sloath of this march of ages, or rather of nations, of civili- 
sations, is besides to be superadded the intricacy of the 



ANALYSIB OF UNlVEIlBAL MElHOlJ. 155 

procedure. For example, method, with its three forms, 
unfolding themselves successively, at first into a single tri- 
nary system ; after, in the same order into so many sepa- 
rate systems, in each of w^liich the other two forms are 
made to play the part of satellites, and all ultimately merg- 
ing into the central unity of Induction, When the like 
phenomena have only recently, and still imperfectly, been 
comprehended in the material masses and magriiflcent 
motions of the heavenly bodies, where the former have 
all CO existed, and the latter been repeating themselves 
since the earliest of human observers; is it improbable 
that a set of abstractions, of imperceptibly gradual 
emergence, scarce visible in their full meridian to a doz- 
en intellects in an age, and srjme of them only now 
breaking upon the horizon — is it wonderful, I say, that 
the state of opinion upon this subject should be still in the 
stage of eccentrics and epicycles ? But the methods have 
another perplexity more misleading than all the rest; it is 
that, though so harmonious as to be complementary of 
each other collectively, they must appear to be independ- 
ent of, and even contrary to, each other successively. 

We are next to note that these three contrivances for 
simplifying the system of nature into [proportion with Per- 
ception, or complicating Perception int(j proportion with the 
scheme of nature, must trail their length, in the manner 
explained, over each of the three divisions, and even of the 
nine sub-divisions of the scientific scale : that is, must all 
take part successively in each integral science. The con- 
sequence is, that the different methods might be occupied^ 
simultaneously upon two or even three different depart- 
ments of phenomena. Thus to one, the Synthetic princi-^ 
pie, in its primary stage of Syllogism, might be contributing 
the deductive consummation ; while analysis, in the shape 
of Analogy, had invaded the adjacent district, and was 
there subverting the reign of the gods by the metaphysi- 
cal archetypes reflected from geometry ; and simple induc- 
tion, as Enumeration, had passed still farther on, and was 
laying its logical outline of^nomenclature. And the same^ 
of course, in case of the three Systems. Conceive, more- 
over, this state of things as expanded to its vast dimensions 
in the proportions of nature and the progression of man- 
kind. Here the several methods, not only Systematic but 



166 YESriGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

even Specific, must each nppoar to whole generations of 
Gontemporai y men antl books, not as partial, or peculiar, 
or merely preferable in a given subject, but as abs4)lutely 
exclusive as well as universal. Thus the Syllogism, seen 
to answer in the mathematical division, would then be 
deemed the very sesame of the cave of science. Sup- 
planted, however, by Analysis, in the region of physics^ 
the votaries of the " New Organ'' would be all for experi^ 
ment, and" this be now the philosopher's stone whereby all 
ignorance and error were to be magically transmuted into 
truth and knowledge. While the novitiates of experience, 
seeing it really to be subversive of the elTete anilities oF 
mythology and metaphysics, would rush forward to the ulti- 
mate or social ranges of complexity proclaiming what they 
should naturally (§ 34, 'J ) be led to style the " inductive" 
method, as the veritable Ephesian goddess of all philoso- 
phy. And this fanaticism would prevail proportionably 
down to the minutest divisions of the scale. 

Nor is this methodic 7?ia?ionmuiiX a mere deduction a 
priori. It is besides but a literal abstract of the most 
enlightened pages that the history of speculation has 
vet to boast. It is the true occasiion, not alone of the 
mutual conflicts and criminations above exposed among 
the various methods themselves, but also of those illusory 
misextensions of them all, in turn, w^hich are rightly but 
vainly repeated to have retarded, over and over, the scien- 
tific progress of the human mind. Thus tlie Schoolmen, 
who (of course, obliged, in the early infancy of modern 
inquiry, to recommence with the Logical stage of method) 
were made familiar through Aristotle with the theory of 
the Syllogism, and through Euclid and otiiers with its effi- 
ciency in mathematics, persisted for centuries in the per- 
verse eHbrt to extend it to the Physical world, and even tO' 
the moral or rather the Social, in advance of the Analytic. 
So anal)'sis, having passed meanwhile to the former of 
these departments under guise, as before intimated, of cer- 
tain essences or types, encountered here a more tlian ordi- 
nary degree of impediment : entities were a sufficient sol- 
vent for the compositions of Imagination ; but the secrets 
to be now explored were the motions and mixtures 
of natural bodies. Induction had, in consequence, to 
resort to fire and force, in the mechanical character* 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVEUSAL METHOD. lo7 

which I riamo Innliumeiitiition. It was by this event, and 
for these causes, that quite early in the sixteenth century 
we have seen the Syllogism superseded by the alembic. 
Then in turn, will the alchemist have nothing short of a 
universal solvent; the physician, an elixir of life; the phi- 
losopher, in fine, the very secret of vitality itself — which 
he had seized, it seemed, so consummately, in the person 
of I^aracelsus, as to fabricate a fellow-philosopher, body 
and soul. But these first enthusiasts of Analysis went the 
way of their predecessors. Not, however, any more than 
the Schoolmen as is vulgarly repeated, without having left 
a treasure to their successors. Only it was the inheritance 
of the old man's heirs in the fable ; who likewise dug for 
gold with might and main, but were rewarded with that 
alone which gives to gold its factitious value. Over the 
soil of chemistry, thus broken up by the animal instinct of 
avarice. Induction brought down its primary process of 
Enumeration, to designate by Naming an empirical outline 
of the subject. Tiie analytic practice of elementalizing 
became now more systematic ; and its sovereign efficacy 
is still sworn by, witli a faith perhaps less ardent, but quite 
Jis absolute as at the dawn of the illusion. In fine, it is the 
recognition of the Analytic group of methods as ajjpropri- 
ate to the general department of natural history, that con- 
tinues to illustrate the epoch and the Organon of J3acon. 
Jjut who would suppose that this great intellect, while de- 
nouncing the Organon of Aristotle, should have been pro- 
moting, by his magniloquent prophesyings, the like abuses 
of his own? nay, should actually have h>een practising (as 
it were not difficult to prove) a very large degrev. of the 
man-making mania of Paracelsus ! And harder still ought 
it be to suppose — if the facts did not spare the trouble — 
how the generafity of British philosophers, to say notliing 
of their literary echoes, go on, to cant about the all-suffici- 
ency of Experimental Induction; in face, for instance, of 
the scientific triumphs of their own countryman Newton, 
as well as the equal or perhaps greater triumphs, because 
in walks progressively more complex, of the Logical con- 
stitution of chemistry, as just alluded to, by Lavoisier, and 
by Linnaeus, Cuvier and others, of the higher, " Classifi- 
catory" Sciences. Triumphs all achieved by means, it is un 
necessary to add, of this reprobated process of Synthesis. 
14* 



loS VESTIGKS OF CIVII.I/^ATIOV. 

AVhito tlio so-calleil Kaconian niolboil lias never constituted 
a single science, ami Hacon himself has never discovered 
a single natural law — although both have, as was their 
mission, ^?/-^y>a?TiZ the mode and the materials. 

Again, the same round of illusion in the last and or- 
ganic department. In fact the error rather thickens, with 
the growing complication. Thus the method of experi- 
ment, deemed as •' universal" as the famous solvent, is 
transferred, as Syllogism had heen before it, tjuite crude 
to the next division, and the cry resounds, in our own days, 
of " experience^' " facts," nothing but facts. Meanwhile 
the process thus invoked, under misconception of its real 
character, goes on to pile up facts upon facts, but pene- 
trates, as is its destiny, to the more imj^ortani and fimda- 
mental ; when, behold ! it is denounced as disorganizing, 
destructive, cVc, and the most faithful of its propagators 
held up to [Hibhc odium as " socialists," *' infidels," in short 
agents of the. devil, neither more nor less than their pre- 
decessors aforesaid the alchemists, who were damned for 
necromancers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The 
only diflerence is, that the modern Hades is the howl of the 
multitude; a thing, however, (]uite as pitiless as the Chris- 
tian hell or the Carthaginian Moloch. But then, synthesis, 
which is organizhig, constructive, must, you say, be accept- 
able. By no means. Those \vho dt) not know what they 
want are not to be caught by dilemmas, and ignorance, 
like angels, can *•' face about" upon a needle-point. Ac- 
cordingly should some thinker who had meditated, a whole 
lifetime, tiie grand and graduated unifi)rmity of the pro- 
cediue of nature, amid the miserable and mole-eyed va- 
garies of man — should any such, I say, propose synthesis 
as the sole and seasonable method of both arresting the dis- 
order and repairing the devastation, he would only be sub- 
limely pitied by your man of" fiicts"and "common sense" 
as a visionary, or its synonym, a theorist. And so the " co- 
medy of errors" is maintained consistently to the end. 

Yet the end is here, as in all comedies, for the best. 
For what signify his petty errors except to j^etty man 
himself? What is their influence on the great design, or 
rather direction, of Nature? That of the displacement of 
a crystalline corpuscle, upon the magnetic polarity of the 
globe. That of the flutter of a mole, upon the flood of 



AKALV6IS OF UKIVER6AL METJfOD. Igj) 

cunlight wherein il floats. Aud this is well ; for what 
would otherwise have become of* nature, and of his fellow 
men ? Nor is it more wonderful than regretable that, in 
spite of the preceding catalogue of convicted and accumu- 
lated absurcfitics, the human mind should have revolved 
on, in the sarHC vortex, from age to age. To most men, 
of all ages, the same as to the primitive savage, their own 
hill-inclosed horizon transcends the universe beside. All 
things are measured with relation to this little scene, of 
which Self is, of course, the centre and the soul : — self, at 
first, in the isolation of the savage or the miser; after 
widening to inclose a cr/untry, in the patriotism of the 
statesman ; then Idn ovm enlightened age, in the pride of 
the philosoj)her ; but self throughout insidiously, insepara- 
bly, inevitably. Of this real Lilliput the present state is 
exaggerated by ignorance, «.nd the future emblazoned by 
imagination. But the Past, as it cannot return, is long 
neglected as a large lumber-room where all things are 
thrown together in a heap. There remains, indeed, a ru'Je 
inventory, preserved on the fly-leaves of the family Bible, 
and freshly catalogued from time to time, according to the 
purview of the day ; and these are styled respectively its 
liLstory and its pliilosophy. But they convey scarce so good 
a conception of the real import of the contents as would 
be received concerning the urchaiology of Europe from a 
modern guide-book. Before men will learn to spell the past, 
it must be charactered and syllabled and drawn out for 
them upon the ample p'lge of time : and then the eye must 
be removed from its present position at the page's edo^e, 
where it only sees a dark unmeaning mass, and lifted to 
front the surface at the proper focal distance, free more- 
over to move itself, or to shift the record panoramically. 
In a word, History must be readjusted to the perspective 
of Nature. 

This is the problem of which I have attempted, in the 
foregoing chapters, to unfold the principles, and determine 
the essential conditions. It may now be convenient to re- 
capitulate the general result. 



160 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 



EECAPITULATION. 

§ 40. By nature, Man is horn in apparent contrast to 
the external world ; while he is constituted in reality a 
fractional portion of the system. This antagonism of 
primordial position between his eye and his organization 
involves the everlasting puzzle of his intellect. Around 
its axis have revolved, accordingly, at various angles of 
obliquity, all the systems whether of religion, morality, or 
metaphysics, which have deluded, but also developed, the 
human species. In truth this original ignorance is the 
veritable Original Sin : it revives, we see, quite naturally, 
in every descendant of Adam, and is to be purged, more 
or less imperfectly, by the baptism of education. An 
explanation which proves its merits by giving meaning to 
a miracle, and vindicating divine justice from the blas- 
phemies of theology. 

The consequence of this natal position is doubtless 
error and illusion. But if it makes illusion necessary, 
it makes progression possible, and it is therefore a pre- 
rogative, not a punishment. Mind is not developed by 
what it finds, but by what it seeks ; and error being a 
negation, a non-perception of the real, leaves it there- 
fore the proper scope for this speculative exercise. Be- 
sides, the acquisition of truth is by elimination of error, 
even as the statuary must hew his Venus from a block of 
stone. This mental agitation, this magnetic oscillation, 
this moral gravitation towards a main and mysterious axis, 
is the force which tends unceasingly to aggregate into 
conformity — conformity, at the same time, of conduct and 
conception — the individual with the community, the nation 
with the a,G^e, the age with the species, and the species 
with the universe. The attainment of this harmony is 
Happiness, is physical and mental health. The pursuit 
of it is Philosophy. The perception of it is Science. The 
progression (if you will, the purgatory) through which the 
blissful goal is gained, is the process termed Civilization : 
that is (as I conceive it), the education of Humanity. It 
was proposed to analyze the Means and the Methods of 
this procedure. 



ANALYSIS OF UNITERSAL METH<3-D. J&l 

§ 41. The means were found to consist in the organiza- 
tion of the Human Mind, and in the constitution of the 
External World ; by whose mutual action and reaction is 
effected the evolution, and will be attained the destina- 
tion, just described. 

Of the Intellect the analysis resulted in a single Fa- 
culty, developing itself progressively under nine forms or 
Processes ; these being equally divided into three succes- 
sive Series ; distinguished, in turn, by the relative pre- 
valence in the body corporal, and thus the social, of the 
three constituent systems, vital, active and intellectual. 

Of the Universe, too, the analysis resulted in a single 
law, reproducing itself under nine progressive complica- 
tions or Categories ; these combined by threes successively 
in so many Predicables or epochs of creation, and termina- 
ting undistinguishably in the origin of the Mental Series. 

Of this curious but really necessary correspondence of 
the two factors, the operation which passed between them 
could scarce have failed to bear the exact impress. And, 
accordingly, the analysis of Method exhibited also a single 
process, undergoing the same progression of novenary 
complications, and trinary combinations into successive 
systems. 

The whole is brought together succinctly before the 
reader's eye in the annexed paradigm. 



o ^ 




o 

1 i 

1 .2 



o 
o 



-Sh 



'5 CO 



•I r I .I i 1 § 



% S 



% 1 ^ 
a, ± S 



t ^ \ 




o ^ 

cs ^ ^ 



' III t £ 

-^ I i I I 

^^ S5 C? fe. 



S. s 



I I 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 1G3 

Such is our analytical chart of the whole pher-omenal 
or positive Universe, as it would be traced in its progres- 
sive formation by the pure intelligence above supposed 
(§ 21) ; which, placed beyond the prepossessions of human 
ignorance and self-importance, could see the series of mo- 
lion proper turn off to form thai of" mind, and here again 
to end in method which supplied at last the third requisite 
— the conductor of the circuit, whereby motion is brought 
around to that contemplation of its own wonders, which the 
sons of men give the name of science to, and theologians 
make the beatific occupation of the Divinity. This, as well 
as the subordinate corjformilies of the scheme, far more 
variously and profoundly symmetrical than the most regu- 
lar of crystalline structures, bear the irresistible stamp of 
nature and truth, and leave it needless to add a word in 
either argument or explanation. There remains, then, but 
to return these analytical results into the synthetic ; to re- 
construct these organic forms which produced the func- 
tions named civilization, and which we shall be then prepar- 
ed to compare with the actual record of them in History. 

§ 42. The forms, it is clear, in the first place, should bear 
a definite analogy to the several divisions of the preceding 
diagram. For as this describes Perception in its progres- 
sive efforts, through Induction, to combine the diversities 
of nature for the purpose of apprehension ; so the present 
purpose, keeping still to the same principles and opera- 
lions, merely shifts us to the point of view of application. 
The latter, also, should therefore present a fundamental 
unity of object, under a generic modification into three 
great orders of contrivances, each description being sub- 
divisible into three specific forms ; and the same proce- 
dure would, of course, repeat itself indefinitely but uni- 
formly in this as in each of the analytic aspects. 

But this correspondence in distribution should hold in 
character and complication. Contrivance must, like con- 
ception, commence with fficts in the simplest form, that is to 
say, with Qualities or properties; it will therefore first be 
art. The second establishment must be made upon the 
lines of Relation, that is to say, the fixation of rules called 
institution. The third foundation we know is Law ; which, 
by combining the points and lines, the arts and institutions 
of the two anterior stages, produces what is termed a sys- 



W4 \EST1(»ES OF C1V1LIZATI0.S. 

icniy bo it natural ov lactituiiis. Tlio coiicoptual princN 
plcsoftlio agoiil (M)ut riving sliouUl consinnniatc tlio (losigiia- 
lion. TluKso aio Sonsatit>Mal, \'^c>liti()nal, IJatioiial, or ap- 
j)oaling, to iooling, to will, aiul to roason. To Aits, lu- 
stitutious, Systems, they tborotbro assign rospoctivcly tlio 
opithcts o{\Kstlw.nical, Political, and Scicntiiio. 

This ilolinilion, however, it nmst bo noted, restricts tho 
forms to their latest tlovelopment. .l>ut in this it sets thorn 
duly on tho positive Ibotiiig of the analytic scale, neglect- 
ing their previous stages as essentially included. And to 
this footing, as far the fairest for all the purposes of exam- 
ple, and moreover far more ample than there is adequate 
s|)ace to discuss, I shall therefore limit u more spi^-ific 
onumeration. Nor will this be made here in form, ior the 
reason just alluded to. Tho present design is not to pa- 
rade classifications; tho desire is to establish the theory 
whereby that greatest want of the day and age may bo 
afiervvards supplied with due authority. Jnit such of the 
minuter modifications in question as can be cited to bear 
this testimony, will best be adjusted to their generic forms 
on tho same occasions. Until then we shall thereK>re ad- 
journ tho beads of Art and Institution ; with the addition 
of a goueral indication, which while it reaches farther back 
than tho analogical determinations above applied, yet con- 
firms them exactly, though drawn, itself, from an opposite 
source. 

§ \o. This supreme source or mofirc of all human 
contrivances is Happiness, so justly though poetically 
called " our being's eml and aim." The real end oi' even 
sim[>ly knowing, as well asof acting, is self-gratification. But 
the means oi' gratification will take shape from the desires,* 
and the desires from tho development of the species or indi- 
vidual. The latter, we liavo seen (§ l(j), relate succes- 
sively to tho Appetites, of which tho symbol is Life and 
tho sanction Force ; to the Passions, of which tho symbol 
is Will and tho sanction Legislation ; to the mental powers 
or Processes, of which the symbol is Reason and the sanc- 
tion is Science. The first is a struggle t>i*man with nature 
by Force.; tho second, a struggle of man with man by 
Fraud ; the third, a mutual emulation of man and nature 
by Faculty. It was this strife, in fact, that accomplislied 
the progressive transformation. The first scene left the 



ANALV6IS OF UNIVERSAL MErHOD. IGl 

uppotitos transff)rrnf3(l inf.o Passions ; tlio sccrtud, loft tl-e 
Passirjns ti'arisforrnod into Riglits; tfio thinl scono (vvliich 
is now in action) will leave tlio m'itarnorpliosod appetites 
called ri«^ht.s, transformed in turn and d(;finitely into Duties. 
Now tlje march oi' the means to gratify being necessarily 
correlative, it must ho easy, through the foregoing accu- 
mulated criteria, to determine the course and character of 
the corresponding Contrivances. For example, the ratjge 
from appetites to passions could devise but Arts, that is to 
say, expedients personal and occasional like the cravings. 
That from passions along to rights would be the ground ot 
Institutions — that is to say, expedients permanent and 
])laced externally to man himself, to bar him from grati- 
fying his passions, from seeking his ha[)piness, by causing 
unhaj)[)incss to his fellows. And finally, the passage from 
rights to the last extreme of duties would give giadual 
growth to Systems or sciences — that is, expedients founded 
erjually in nature and in man ; therefore flexible like the 
arts and fixed like the institutions; combining also their 
opposite properties, of j)ositive and negative, productive 
and protective, and contrived to render each man happy 
through the haj)piness of all. From this new deduction, 
then, — through every line of which we see reflected the 
general thef>ry — results again the same division, of aits, 
institutions, systems. And the correlative objects to be 
gratified, namely passions, rights, duties, tally al.-;o v.ilh 
the terms vli^sthetical, Political, and Scientific, the last being 
the same as Dutiful to nature. 

But even anterior to these riper stages the gradation is 
no less evident. The cycle of force must hegin with the 
Arts thence named Mechanical ; that of fraud with the 
Institutions termed Religious ; the ages of reason with the 
Systems called Educational. These complementary desig- 
nations might be specified still farther. For instahce, the 
arts, into first the Predatory artifices of the hunter of 
beasts, which result in the hunting of men ; then the Mili- 
tary arts of the hunters of men, which result, through 
compulsion or conquest, in the cultivation of the soil ; 
thence the Agricultural arts, which through the founda- 
tion of society, shape in turn the progression into that 
Bcmi-artisiic stage of development, whei^e it tapers off 
from the Mechanical, into the ^Esthetic series, like the 
15 



166 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

parent efflorescence of the gross Appetites into the grand 
Passions. Religion, in the stage of' institution, presents a 
like variety : it is first a worship of the elements referred 
to the stars, or Sabeism ; next, a worship of the pro- 
perties of the earth, or Fetichism ; later a worship of the 
dead benefactors of society, or Polytheism ; which, ending 
of course in monotheism or the generalization of the social 
Will, passes away under the transitional ambiguity of 
rationalism. In the remaining division, of Educational 
systems, I cannot appeal to history for the specific forms, 
as I am not aware that education has yet attained to the 
stage of Systems, but lingers in Institution, if not mostly 
in, even Art. This remark will remind the reader that 
each description of Contrivances may pass through the 
three forms in succession. For example, the mechanical 
arts are already in large part advanced to science, to which 
they passed of course through the stage of Institution 
termed Castes; and religion on the other hand, before 
growing into this caste state, must have been practised 
in the state of art, and even of artifice. And such in fact 
was its rudimentary stage of jugglery, sorcery, &;c., where 
it mingles or anastomoses with the Medical art. 

This famous but hitherto inexplicable kinship of crafts 
suggests another and more fundamental distinction. It is 
that both Arts and Institutions are, like the happiness they 
seek, to be divided into those that pursue pleasure and 
those that remove pain. To the latter of the classes be- 
long the art of the priest as long as physical suffering is 
thought the work of the demons. But when these are 
imagined to pass into the airy region of moral infliction, 
and after them their redoubtable adversary, then the 
Medical art is separated from and left behind by the Reli- 
gious ; very much as the Mechanical remain the useful 
residium, while the volatile Esthetics play above them in 
a state of vapour. But for detailed explanation, see the 
sequel at large. These general hints are here thrown out 
for the sole convenience of any curious reader who may 
wish, for his own instruction or the purposes of criticism, 
to follow up the classification systematically. And to fa- 
vour farther a design so laudable, I must furnish him in 
conclusion, with a universal test of the gradation. 

This in fact is already supplied both by reiterated ex- 



AN'ALVBrH OK UNIVEIiHAL MKTHOD. 107 

ample in tlj^i analyticcIaHHificJitir^fiB of the preceding clj/ip- 
l.erH, Jifjr] in finr; by pr ece'pl in a late nection ('jOj, where it 
\i:iH been forrnally eMf.a}>]ihlje<], tliat thifj^^H tlie rno;-t General, 
()i>\u\H'Xit and .Sirrjf>le to conce'pf.ion a/etlie rnoht f'urjdarnen- 
t.al if) Kcirjfice, as we-ll a;s t.lj(i moM, coiinnoti in nature. Now 
t,}j(j principle holdn alike of llie Synthetic or practical order. 
To agi iciiltnre, arnori;^ the liHef'ul artjj, thoKe Keveral epi- 
thetH will all aj^ply, if not inde*jd in the highent dejnee, at 
leant ifj a higher than to manufacture ; aijd to thin depart- 
ment again, in a liigher tljan to commerce. Sucli i» also 
the rationale; of comparative digtiity and remuneration, from 
the lowe«t trades or pursuits of life to the highest. And 
this ap[/lication of the rule J am glad of an occasion to 
impress, hotli uj>on a day of social transformation, when the 
principle is much disputed, and upon a country where it U 
mon; mischievously distorted tharj elsewhere, owing to the 
absence of those natural counter weigljts t.hat should regu- 
late the transition. The criterion may thr^n be described, 
in the most palpal>le or concrete form, as jjrogres^ing 
from l}iii rudely muscular, through trie artist ical, along 
to the pragmatical or moral, and thence through the as- 
cending series of the intellectual powers. So says the 
universal order of nature, and the urjiform instincts of 
mankind. 

Jiiit it is a mistake, it is a " monopoly," ,say some half- 
witted philanthro[>i-tH. As men are all equal, so should 
also be all callings; and so ought therefore, their com- 
jiensations, cry consistently the Communists. The usual 
n^ply to this is by sapping the grotesque sorites, and show- 
ing that these motley rc^fbrmers make no account of the 
capacilie/i — which is doubtless to omit the part of Hamlet 
with a verif^eance. Still I. do not think the artrument suf- 
ficient. For it miglit ha rejoined and has been ; we grant 
you your author carj produce a book ; but this day-labourer 
is more capable of producing a dirjficr; pray which is the 
more 'ru^aiHHary arjd couseqiiently the more usij'ul ; and if 
dif^nity be distributed by the itx'dcX inverse of this order, 
who can deny that the societies doing so need fundamental 
reconstruction ? Now the answer should distinguish ; it 
should concede that indeed the labourer would be more 
*' necessary" and even " useful," than a poet or painter in 
the ruder stages of society . .Tust as a hunter or a wanior 



168 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

would in turn, be more useful than a tiller of the land or 
tailor, in an Indian village. Or as a money-broker or hotel- 
keeper is actually a person of m.ore consequence, than a 
statesman or a philosopher, in New-York. But the reason 
is, that these sorts of utilily are better adapted to the seve- 
ral communities. The savage is fully gratified with his 
blanket or skin ; the hind, with a bawdy ballad or a tra- 
velling panorama; and even the commercially civilized 
are much more intimately skilled in the quantity of dollars 
or the quality of dinners than in what they contemptuously 
call " abstractions," political or philosophical. The supe- 
riority here is real, then, and the exception only apparent, or 
of the sort which is said proverbially to prove the rule ; 
but it is relative to the community, and its condition of in- 
tellectual development. Whereas the utility which should 
determine the graduation of dignity is absolute, or only 
relative to the whole system of nature. 

In this system the retrogressively higher " necessity" of 
the ruder callings is progressively countervailed by the 
super-supply. Every man may be a day-labourer, as, may 
the ox and the ass. But how many mechanics and mo- 
ney-changers amalgamated together would supply the in- 
tegrity of a Cato or the genius of an Aristotle? Would 
the world's subsequent forces, of mere muscle and money 
combined, be even equivalent, in shedding liberty and 
light upon posterity, to the life and death of the one, and 
to the writings of the other ? Or rather, has not the 
tendency of the forces referred to been, to oppress 
and not to elevate? Here then, as ever, the dignity 
is only proportioned to the utility. But this philo- 
sophical utility, in action or in thought, is of a grade too 
abstract, too complex for the comprehension of a Com- 
munist, who is by doctrine or perhaps development in that 
opposite extreme of mind where he dreams of building 
up the most intricate and aerial, so to speak, of structures, 
by strewing the stones, right democratically, along the 
surface of the surrounding plains. 

But though such visions beget folly and pretension in 
speculation, and violence and vulgarity in practice they 
cannot for any time prevent the common understanding 
from returning to the common order of nature. The in- 
born rank of capacity is admitted always when under- 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL MEIHOD. 1G9 

Stood, and recurs even among hunters and hotel-keepers. 
It rules in the composition of the human body and intelli- 
gence, each articulation, each tissue, each atom, as well as 
idea, of which are kej^t harmoniously together by this 
grand subordination. It reigns, we have seen, in the se- 
veral aspects — material, mental and methodical — which 
make up the total course of creation. And finally it reg- 
ulates the counter aspect of civilization, throughout the 
three correlative stages of Arts, Institutions, Sciences. 

§ 44. With this summary 23reparation the former two 
are here dismissed, to be resumed in ample detail in the 
ensuing investigation. But as the limits of the present 
design exclude the article of Sciences, belonging, as 
it mainly does, to an epoch but just commencing, it will be 
proper to state specifically the synthetic results in this final 
form, to be confronted with the foregoing, if not also with 
much that follows. And this is done by mere translation 
of our popular designations into the more specific and 
technical nomenclature. 

Turning then to the last diagram and the scientific 
series, we find the primitive section offer, successively : 
Number, Quantity and Figure, which are equivalent to 
Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. In the second divi- 
sion : Force, Mixture, Structure, which tally equally with 
Mechanics, Chemistry and Mineralogy. In the third v- 
Growth, Life and Intellection, where we recognize the- 
leading sciences called Botany, Biology, and what mightr 
perhaps be termed Ethology. The last, however, not in 
the sense of its inventor, Mr. Mill, but, etymologically, to- 
denote the laws of moral propension and habitude, or Per- 
ception, while it is instinctive and confined to the Pro- 
cesses of our primary Series. To readers at all convers- 
ant with the history of modern science, the strict conform- 
ity of this succession will now be obvious at a glance. 
The novice, doubtless, will look distrustfully along this 
meagre catalogue, for the multitudinous olagies and ona- 
mies and ographies of his quack school books. He may 
be sure, however, they are all enveloped in the nine- 
packets aforesaid, that is, so far as not too impalpable or 
nonsensical for seizure, and with the slight exceptions or 
rather explanations, to be mentioned. 

Of these the principal is the twofold division, above 
15* 



170 VES'lIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

denominated State and Change (§ 24), and which pervades 
the entire series, though under different appellations. In 
the physical and middle department of the scale, where as 
usual the true character was first expanded into recogni- 
tion, the distinction is duly noted with etymological signi- 
ficance, by the familiar tei'ms statics and dynamics. In the 
so called organic region, it takes the names of organ and 
function; although here, no doubt, the real identity re- 
mains no longer unapprehended. And at the other end, 
in mathematics, while not merely the identity, but the fact 
itself of the general division, is unrecognized, yet the 
distinction is recorded regularly, for instance, in such 
terms as numtral and symholic Arithmetic, ^;/rt/;i and ana- 
lytic Geometry, &:c. Now, these two aspects of each of our 
categories are commonly rated as distinct sciences, and 
so the number is apparently doubled. Again, we know 
(§ 33), that each of these half sciences, as well as the 
whole, or more properly speaking, their subject pheno- 
mena, pass successively through three principal stages, 
which, by an orderly addition of the learned suffixes 
above named, appear to pass into the scientific muster- 
roll. Thus then are our nine sciences already chopped into 
fifty-four, and this without yet leaving the positive basis of 
reality. It is just as if nine persons should be distin- 
guished into bodies and souls, and then each section sub- 
partitioned into infancy, youth and manhood ; the total re- 
sult might suit the scale or the ostentation of a census, but 
the purposes of real science would send us back to the 
nine originals. Nay, worse still than this wretched dis- 
memberment- — the confusion and curse of our day — is 
the rage of denomination, which is become its caricature. 
Scarce a step in empirical knowledge that is not dubbed 
with the name of science ; and even terms as empty as the 
heads that echo them make no small portion of the current 
cyclopedias. For this crude mistake is not confined, it 
seems, to theologians and metaphysicans, but may happen 
also to the metaphysical dabblers in science. 

I cannot, however, in resolving this farrago into 
a few elements, be thought to narrow the extent of 
nature or overrate the completeness of science. The 
latter in the actual state as compared with its capa- 
bilities, I have repeatedly shown to resemble the " corn- 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL MKHIOD. 171 

patches" of the wild Indianas, set in contrast with the 
garden culture of England or Belgium. But even here 
the difference was not effected by adding a foot to the 
original area ; but by deepening and clearing and com- 
pounding the soil. So, too, of the extent of nature, which 
runs in the like direction, a direction of evolution where 
we clasp the rudiments from the beginning. And I must 
own that the commonplace rhapsodies — peculiar however 
to British philosophers — about the infinity, and anon the 
simplicity, of nature and of science, seem to me not only 
calculated to keep alive a dying mysticism in the minds at 
least of the popular readers, but also significant of pro- 
found ignorance in the authors themselves respecting that 
in which either the unity or the variety really lies. 

§ 45. Be this, however, as it may, there still are scien- 
ces not named in our catalogue, and which very certain- 
ly do not lielong to the spurious undergrowth just dispos- 
ed of. The reader looks for the great names of Astrono- 
my and Geology, Are these then excluded from the se- 
ries ? and where without them is its completeness, or with 
them its consistency ? The dilemma is rather pressing. 
But unless the tlieory be capable not merely of escap- 
ing it by explanation, but of converting it into the usual 
triumph of unexpected harmony, I confess my confidence 
in the former would be shaken even at this last hour. 
For it was in following faithfully its well-tried clue, in 
evolving the necessary not adjusting the actual, that the 
subjects in question have been omitted from the list of spe- 
cific sciences. 

But the analytic elements — material, mental, and me- 
thodical — of those sciences presented also, each and all, 
we saw, a Generic series ; and this consisted of three 
terms, subdivided each into as many categories, and standing 
to each other in the now familiar order, of successive origin 
and inclusion, which they transmitted, in turn, to the lower 
triads. Now these of course should have their analogues in 
the synthetic scale, and the identity would be detected by re- 
composing the specific elements. Is it 2>ossible that this, 
which is the next step in order, ma}^ result in the solution 
required ? In truth, the fact has been already intimated 
in relation to i^stronomy, which I have somewhere called 
the pure embodiment of the three mathematical sciences. 



172 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATlOlT. 

Its well-known subject matter is composed of number, 
quantity, figure, that is to say Motion dispersed, condens- 
ed, confronted ; or more familiarly, blank bodies as distri- 
buted in space, as exhibiting certain magnitudes or rather 
proportions of attractive force, and as possessing certain 
shapes, in joint consequence of which they coincide with 
an observed system of revolutions. Any thing more which 
16 superadded concerning climate, soil, atmosphere, &c., 
is a superfaetation coarsely foreign to astronomy, and in fact 
but an analogical reflection from the physics of our own 
planet. Passing on then to this distinct division of the 
phenomenal scale, and putting together its three categories 
of pressure, mixture, structure; how, in the next place, 
does the compound tally with the province of Geology ? 
I dare challenge all the books on the subject in our lan- 
guage to furnish a definition at once so concise, complete, 
and characteristic. So far, therefore, nothing could, we 
see, be more felicitous. But where is the third term 1 

For this there appears to be as yet no fixed name ; and 
doubtless because there is no definite conception of the 
thing. However, putting together our three remaining 
categories, namely, growth, life, and mind, it is not difficult 
to recognize in the synthetic result, the supreme organism 
called Society. For of what is Society constituted but of 
the vegetable, the animal, and the mental kingdoms com- 
bined 1 In fact, its unit, man, is composed of the alleged 
elements ; and the sole difference is that in the latter case, 
they are gathered into a corpuscle, in the former diffused 
over a globe. They are not, however, for this, the less a 
unity ; any more than is the globe itself to which they ad- 
here. In this social unity they all play, in fact, an equally 
essential, though each a leading or progressively important, 
part. And this part is as universally in the strictest 
conformity to what I have so often described as the three 
mathematical forms of creation ; the vegetables in their 
fixed diffusion, corresponding to the Numerical ; the ani- 
mals in their loco-motional aggregations, to the Quantita- 
tive ; and the rational force in its reactive and combina- 
tive capacities, to the Figured or systematic formula. To 
limit society to man alone is therefore to pass the head 
for the whole body. In the collective, as well as the 
personal instance, the one depends upon the other. Man 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 173 

owes half his little civilization to the lower animals, and all 
animals their main subsistence to the vegetables. In fine, 
although the latter two may severally flourish, and have in 
fact so done for millions of ages, wiihout society, yet society 
without them could never have had existence, and would 
now lose it within the space of a single moon. They are 
very decidedly then, its integral constituents. And we 
have found the complementary term of the series. For its 
science I shall adopt the recent name of Sociology. 

It may, however, be retorted that the vegetables stand 
in need of the soil, &c. ; and even the earth, in turn, in 
need of the sun and its system. Undoubtedly. But that 
is precisely what the theory demanded, in just reiterating 
the universal axiom that the posterior terms of a progressive 
series must always include the preceding. Thus does 
every new objection, as soon as it appears, turn out to be 
just the requisite awaited. 

§ 46. There is, however, still another. It will be re- 
membered the law alluded also qualifies the mode of in- 
clusion; it prescribes among other things, that every 
third term has, in consequence of being the rotatory 
axle of the evolution, the peculiarity of involving its pre- 
decessors under a generic denomination. Thus (to take 
the fresher instances) the third of the mathematical laws 
cannot be said to include the others in the special science 
of geometry — which, on the contrary, is an ideal abstrac- 
tion of figure from their society ; the inclusion takes effect 
and body but by passing upwards into Astronomy. So 
mineralogy " coils up" chemistry and mechanics in no 
other wise than by resolving back its specific structures into 
the generic structure of Geology. And ethology or men- 
tal philosophy, or whatever else we choose to call it, em- 
braces botany and biology (pregnant themselves with the 
two anterior series) in only the aggregate expansion of So- 
ciology. It is clear, therefore, that this final science must 
include in turn its earlier fellows, in some still ulterior and 
23ore universal term. The question is as to whether our 
theory left this summum genus a supernumerary ? 

By no means ; but quite to the contrary. We found the- 
like in each of the analytic scales, where the three Predica- 
bles of matter were resolved into Relation, the three Princi- 
ples of mind into Perception, the three Systems ofm-ethod 



174 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

into Induction. Analogy then, if not identity, demands it in 
the Synthetic. What then can be this final formula ? No 
other than what this theory commenced with analyzing and 
establishing in the several elements, and then upon revers- 
ing the process into composition, has been led, we see, 
by a confluence of necessities, to re-produce — it is that 
science of Humanity to which I give the name of Civi- 
lization. 

The following table will sketch, though rudely, the 
whole Synthetic operation. I designed, for the reasons 
stated, to restrict it to the section of Sciences ; which alone 
I feel here prepared for presentation. I incline, however, 
upon second thought, to admit a skeleton of the rest — if 
only for symmetry, and to spare the reader the painful as- 
pect of incompleteness. But it may also aid in keeping 
so enormous a procession, in its general integrity, before 
the mind's eve. 



5 s 






SI H 
S-. CI 

^ O 
CO 



a 

< 

1—4 

N 
> 

O 



3 -^ 



i i. 



JTJ > 



> 



— . to 






176 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. W 

It will be seen, I trust, without surprise that the course 
of ascension is here the opposite to that of the Analytical 
synopsis. They are, it is well known, the formal contra- 
ries of each other. I must own, however, there are a few 
terms in the sections of Aits and Institutions with which 
I am not, at this moment, myself, quite satisfied as to the 
series. But this, if not adjusted by the sequel of the pres- 
ent pages, must be left for some future occasion less dis- 
proportionate to the vast subject. I close, then, with a 
few reflections on the department of Systems. 

§ 47. First : is the profound coincidence of the subject 
matter of the Generic Sciences with the description of the 
three Cycles of our general division ? These were said 
(§ S) to proceed : the first, upon the phenomena o^ external 
Nature — which is precisely the domain of Astronomy ; 
the second, upon INIan, as sole explorer of internal Na- 
ture, his own of course, included — which is with equal 
truth the province of perfected Geology ; the third, upon 
both conjoined — which is the manifest sphere of Social 
Science. 

In fact this science remains impossible until both the 
constituent premises are sufficiently forward to dispel the 
prejudices that still conceal its very rudiments. Would 
you know why it is that, of all the sciences. Astronomy 
and Geology have alone given alarm to superstition ? 
The cause is told in words of light, by the progressional 
collocation, and the collective character, assigned those 
subjects in the above table. Astronomy some three cen- 
turies ago, and Geology two centuries later, have cut us 
loose, in fact, from the two principal of the theological 
moorings, which had chained us, the one, to a nook of space 
in the mud-hole of Erebus, and the other to a span of 
time in the Jewish annals of Eden ; and so swung free 
our fettered planet, or rather with it our creeping concep- 
tion, to range progressively through the two infinitudes of 
creation. And there is much to be still done, to the same 
purpose, even by the older and easier of these sciences. 
But it must be through a new conception of the subject. 
Astronomy contains the anterior complement to the form- 
ative series of Geology. We can scarce hope to pierce 
the earth below the organic epochs. But here precisely 
the line is continued in the tolerably ascertainable state 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 1V7 

of the moon ; already referred to as perhaps exemplifying 
the mechanico-chemical formations. Of the preceding 
or mathematical stages, two at least are supplied by 
the comets. And even the " nebular" or Numerical or 
atomic state of fiery vapour, which is reasonably thought to 
still prevail throughout the central parts of our globe, 
may it not be studied, if no where else (1), in the flaming 
atmosphere of the sun, where the calorific matter would 
be forced above the surface (or evolved as the phrase is) 
by the vast pressure : a pressure so inconceivably enor- 
mou8,as not to be imaginably diminishable by a weight 
equal to that of whole planets at any other point of the 
system ; a pressure in fact, not merely within the compass of 
the sun itself, of all the parts of that solid universe towards 
the centre, but the pressure, superadded and similarly 
concentrated, of the incumbent mass of planetary worlds. 
But I only meant to indicate how the less explored walks 
of Astronomy are destined to conduct us through the dark- 
er avenues of Geology ; and thus to prepare the latter, in 
turn, to react, at the other extremity, upon the grand out- 
standing "mystery" of organic life. Of this also we are 
doubtless provided with the natural analysis, awaiting 
but a new Copernicus to conceive it. The feat will form 
the grand prologue to our third generic science. It will be 
the openingof the " last seal," and must make a revelation or 
a revolution unprecedented by its predecessors, in the modes 
of human conduct and conception. The result, we may 
be sure, will again restore piimeval nature to the moral 
centre of the universe, as before to the material ; and send 
man himself, with his petty vanities of free volition and 
intellection (as formerly his petty planet with the sun and 
stars for its circling satellites) to wheel around her throne 
in lines as fatal as, and but more fickle than, the kindred 
clay upon which he treads. Thence will follow a completer 
notion of his cosmical position and natural duties ; which 
give, in turn, its positive basis to the general science I call . 
Sociology. 

Both the generic position and exhaustive compass which, 

(1) May not certain phenomena of our own atmosphere contribute 
something to this end ? And also the chaotic condition of meteorology 
itself, might it not be profited, for instance, by a cleissification of cloud?, 
upon the basis of our mathematical formulae ? 
16 



178 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION". 

in broad exception to the current arrangements, have been 
now assigned to those three departments of science are, 
then, attested by some of the most remarkable phenomena 
of its history. But something more curious still, though 
no more than duly consistent, is their nice agreement with 
the threefold form of our fundamental principle. For 
have we not the first or Numerical form in the individual 
objects of Astronomy ; the Quantitative or elongated, in 
the stratifications of Geology ; and the third, or Figured 
stage, in the province of Sociology, which, by reaction 
(§ 26), rounds the whole into a system 1 And this mention 
of the last term recalls the crowning congruity of all, 
namely, that of the supreme stages of Civilisation. For 
the three types which have now been followed through 
the whole series of known creations ; which left their foot- 
steps, in Astronomy, from the nebular to the globular 
state ; in Geology, from pressure to polarity ; in the so 
called organic sciences, from the simple cells of the vege- 
table to the nervous circuits of the higher animals, and 
particularly in physical man, from the ganglia to the brain«— 
these three modes, I say, of all existence and conditions of 
all progression are no less manifest in the s<xjial structures 
of Arts, Institutions, and Sciences; nay, these are in fact, 
respectively the ganglia, the spinal chord, and the cerebal 
convolutions of the Social body. (1) 

(1) In the work before referred to, of Baron Von Riechenhach, I 
observe in a note of the translator {Dr. Ashhurner) the following state- 
ment, of the full import of which neither he nor the maker of the ex- 
periment seems to have had the least imagination, and which in fact is 
only to be comprehended from the theory in the text. 

" My friend Mr. Cross has devised a very pretty illustration of this 
fact, which at once exhibits the modifications effected by an obstruct- 
ing medium on light and the material nature of this imponderable. 
He takes three sufficiently strong cylinders of glass, properly capped 
with brass, and furnished with convenient stop-cocks. These are 
each first plaoed in relation with an air-pump. Then A is to be ex- 
hausted by the greatest power of the pump ; B to a degree sufficient 
to give one inch greater pressure of the barometric gauge : C to give 
two inches greater pressure than A and one inch greater than B. 
They are to be screwed one upon another, A being uppermost. An 
electric shock is to be passed through the whole, from A downwards, 
in the dark. A will appear filled with one umforni cylinder oi purple 
flame ; B with parallel columns of a reddish purple flame ; and 
^through C will pass a falling STAR." (p. 444). 

Whether for exact conformity of similitude and series, or the pecu- 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 179 

§ 47. But is it that Society has a nervous system, a 
thinking organ in the literal sense, and apart from that 
of the component individuals 1 I am forced to answer 
that the intimation was no poetic comparison, but a logical 
deduction from the entire tenor of the exposition. Yet 
this conclusion is at once so singular and so momentous in 
its full import, that I should probably have hesitated to- 
draw it for myself, certainly to declare it to the public, at 
the instance of any weaker exigencies and assurances 
than the following. 

In the first place, amid the established urgency for the 
reformation of the entire scale, the modes of classifying 
man in particular are quite disgraceful to the state of 
Science. For to cut him up into two or three beings^, 
animal, moral, rational, &6., is scholastic or mystical non- 
sense. So arbitrary a procedure would be hooted as- 
absurd in the study of any other object in the universe ; 
for in all the study is mainly concerned with the condi- 
tions of integrity in which they have been presented by 
nature. The complexity of these conditions is not un- 
ravelled by coarse division ; which, in this case, would 
oblige to continue the partition of the human species into 
vegetable, chemical, mechanical, geometrical. The analy- 
sis results spontaneously from the eliminations of a proper 
scale, which reserves to each succeeding class but its differ- 
ential character. Now this is found in man to be the law, 
I name ethology, meaning the property of modifying the- 
various instincts according to usage. By this he is clearly 
demarkated from the conterminous class of animals, and in 
the normal mode of graduation — by a distinction of mere 
degree. But then there remained other gradations, su- 
perior to individual man, and apparently so diverse as to 
be commonly thought incongruous ; there were mental 
processes, there were social institutions, there were scien- 
tific systems. How then were these residual grades tO' 
be reduced within the scale, and still leave man his pre- 
scriptive position of pre-eminence % The difficulty had 

liarly refined consistency of the subject matter, perhaps entire nature 
could not furnish a more conclusive, more crucial, instance than is 
revealed in this threefold result, of the creative law to which I have- 
doue such imperfect justice for the present. 



180 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIO?:. 

but one alternative, either by multiplying the natures of 
the subject, or merging the degrees of the phenomena. 
The former is the general procedure just alluded to, and 
is chargeable, in addition to the classificatory uncouthness, 
with a twofold and manifest absurdity ; I mean the attri- 
bution, to the same species, of two or three orders of phe- 
nomena, which are reputed by such writers themselves to 
be heterogeneous if not incompatible, and the attribution 
of the phenomena in question to the particular species 
man, not one individual of which exhibits any of them 
naturally, nor one in ten thousand ever exhibits the whole 
at all. 

It was doubtless in shrinking from these montrosi- 
ties, on the one hand, and on the other, seeing the ne- 
cessity of some positive organism wherein the rational and 
social functions must take place, that the other horn of 
the dilemma, — the amalgamation of diversities, — has been 
incurred by even the foremost philosopher of our age. 
M. C orate, in fact, refers the moral and intellectual opera- 
tions to the category of mere natural or physical man, but 
under the designation of Social Physics. There is no 
man whose decision I would longer hesitate to call in 
question. To him is due, as I took the earliest occasion 
to acknowledge, the fundamental principle of this book, 
— although, beyond the grand idea (which has been ex- 
plained, as well as unfolded and applied after my own 
fashion), there is nothing else, it may be equally proper to 
declare, the responsibility of which I dare call upon the 
author to share, and still less, upon any other, among this 
living or the dead. But with all this prepossession, I was 
forced to doubt him in this arrangement. The doubt was 
in fact supported by the general condemnation of critics ; and 
finally, what I deemed more authoritative, by the dissatis- 
faction of the classifier himself, which has been intimated, as 
I understand, in some ofhis recent publications. From these 
various considerations, pointing concurrently and conclu- 
sively to the existence of some organic substance, of an order 
superior to individual man, I have been careful, it may be 
recollected, in leaving the latter at the head of the scale, not 
only to limit his properties to the mental Processes of the 
first stage, but to qualify his position by declaring it rela- 
tive to the recognized terms. I felt throughout there was 
still a term, the final term, unrecognized. And if I was 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 181 

wrong, it must be owned that this publication has been 
planned, like so many of its predecessors, without a 
subject. 

For I proposed to sketch Humanity as an individual 
being, of which the organism was Society and the func- 
tioning Civilization. Judge then my delight to find our 
all-including social science, and even the Arts and Institu- 
tions which preceded and prepared it, detruded logically 
from the actual catalogue of positive existences, and left to 
roam, like the Platonic archetypes, in quest of concrete 
embodiment. As this in fact was a sort of remainder that 
could not have well subsisted, like the contingent ones 
of the feudal lawyers "in the clouds," the grand embodi- 
ment was now presented as spontaneously, inevitably. Of 
course it had never been absent save in the prejudices of 
men themselves ; nor present in their proper persons, save 
in a kindred illusion. Towards dispelling this double 
error of perspective and presumption, I beg to offer, in 
conclusion, the following plain suggestions. 

It is plain, then, that the Social system is a thing as 
positive, as real, and even as natural in the strictest sense 
as any one of its constituent elements. It is, too, as inti- 
mately and much more exquisitely organized. Not to men- 
tion here its finer tissues, are not individuals, classes, com- 
munities, — from city to city throughout the most extensive 
countries, and from country to country even across inter- 
vening oceans, — set in motion through the cold commercial 
nerves of the telegraph, no whit less surely or sensitively 
than is the physical arm, by the application of fire to the- 
fingers, or tlian were the locomotive muscles by the panic 
terror of the ancient shepherds? Does not a Parisian 
" emeute^^ send a convulsion throughout entire Europe as- 
infallibly and almost as instantly as an inflammation of the 
brain does throughout the body natural ? A short cotton crop 
at our own South, or corn crop at the West, excite a fever 
at Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, just as normally as the 
limbs experience a quite analogous fermentation from a 
derangement of the mucous membrane of the alimentary 
canal ? But the component atoms of the social body are, 
you say, so free, so far apart. Are they so far apart as 
the stars of yonder nebula, which, though separated by 
perhaps millions of times the span of our solar system,. 
16* 



1S2 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION'. 

YOU yet confuse into the consistence of a vapour I Are 
liiey apparently so iiulependent as the planet particles of 
the latter systefn, Avbich, in spite of sense, you now admit 
to be bound together by the strictest unity l Are they so 
segregate and self-siilhcient as the component elements of 
even our own globe, which you agree are all nnited in the 
single system of Geolos^v ? And how should it have been 
otherwise in the subject of Sociology, with its immensely 
higher degrees of comjilicatiou ? On the other hand, to 
the worms that lind their prey in the human body, what a 
multitudinous and many-laned London must be the abdo- 
men of an alderman ; and the several systems of tissues, 
what a succession of worlds. And even the mote that be- 
gins to float in the rising tear-drop of a maiden's eye, no 
doubt beholds within its crystal concave a relative expanse 
ot' objects and distances, no less immeasurable, than the 
visible universe of man. So entirely are all the aggregates 
of nature a thing of relation, and most our human errors 
a consequence of position. 

It is then this position that interferes with the recogni- 
tion of our real condition as mere molecular elements of 
the social organism. The particles of all other bodies 
would doubtless see themselves in the same light, suppos- 
ing they had man's vision and vanity. It is known as a 
matter of fact that all are equally porous in projuntion to 
tl.e size of their corpuscles ; that, for instance, Ilumanity 
is as much a unit, a ^oliJ, in comparison with the more 
complicated corpuscles which compose it, as these are, indi- 
vidually, in respect to their component atoms. It is moreover 
known that among the latter there is really never an ap- 
proach to contact ; there is a loose fluxion and delluxion, a 
composition and decomposition, carried on within a certain 
periphery which we call the human flgure. Now put men 
instead of molecules, and the definition appUes as well to 
what we daily see take place in the larger system cafled 
Society, and what was sung, some thirty centuries since, 
respecting aggregate generations, by the Celtic and sub- 
lime melancholy of the Homeric bard. AVhat, in fact, are 
new generations but those renovations of the body politic 
which are computed to take place, in the natural, in periods 
of about seven years ? And the number of the former 
cvcle, whenever determined accurately, will doubtless be 



ANALYSIS OF UKIVERBAL METHOD. 183 

found fi rnultiplc of the latter. So purely, in fine, is the 
difrerence in (jue.stion, a thing of vision of more degree, 
we cannot doubt that, to the eye of a mite, the fluctuation 
of elernerjt.s in thfi physical body would aj^pear as free, as far 
apart, and I had ahnost said as Kt;lf-dir<jcted, as do the 
movements of society to the eye of the philosopher. For 
we may test the thirjg with human vision in a community 
of ants or bees ; regarded at a certain distance, they might 
seem a mass as fixed and solid as the particles of any por- 
tion of the human body; approach them nearer, and they 
open into busy but confused motion ; examine attentively, 
and you will discern the most orderly activity, rejecting, 
replacing, rei)airing, augmenting, — just the same as, ne 
doubt, the atoms of a healirjg sore or a digesting stomach. 
I am aware it is not so flattering to Hcitnt'iJ'y men into atoms, 
as if, with others, I were to mystify them into angels. But 
I can only regret to find it imjiossible to humour them in 
this serious matter, consistly with their own interest and 
that of truth. 

The most absurd part of the illusion, however, is by no 
means this non-perception of the organic unity of Hu- 
manity ; it is the usurpation of the specific attributes of 
the whole, by each of the parts. It is again (to resume 
the analogy) as if the particles of the physical body were 
pretended each to possess the properties which result alone 
from the combination. It quite inverts the most extensive 
and important principle in nature, namely — that matter is 
but a sort of fulcrum, and Form, that \'n, figured Motion or 
more familiarly organization, is the great efficient yorce 
throughout the Universe. And hence the confusion afjove 
remarked, in attributing to individual man what is termed 
a moral and rational essence. Whereas these are truly 
attributes developed by the higher being, towards which 
mankind as individuals hold the uniform relation of plat- 
form ; however eminently organized themselves in respect 
to the downward grades of the scale. The principle in 
this case is also plain from observation. It mu>t be need- 
less now to argue that neither- ileason nor even Iteflection, 
nor consequently Speech, as distinguishe'l from brute lan- 
guage, is possible to man as individual. This is implied 
in respect to language, the least equivocal of the three facul- 
ties, in the very epithet usually given it, of conventional. 



184 VESTIGES OP CIVILIZATI0>:. 

It is also seen that savages speak little and reluctantly, and 
the more so as they remain the nearer to simple nature. 
Even the civilized will, it is said, by long solitude lose the 
faculty ; and it is certain the congenitally deaf can never 
gain it. Man is, therefore, born a talker or a thinker no 
more than he is born a tailor or theologian. He becomes 
the latter only by studying in a cloth-shop or a college. 
But so does he become the former but by being brought 
up in a society. Nor can the fallacy of final causes pre- 
tend these qualities to be at all necessary to the subsistence, 
preservation, or propagation of the species. On the con- 
trary, most of this seems to go on rather better, in men in- 
capable of reason or reflection ; as it also does in the lower 
animals, where instinct is found sufficient. Society, on the 
other hand, could not live an instant without one or both. 
Its mere existence implies an exercise of reflection ; for 
the selfish individualism of instinct tends to isolate ; whereas 
reflection begets sympathies, and sympathies association. 
It is Society then, that can, alone, be said to have been 
born with the attributes specified. I need not insist that it 
was also born a moralist and politician. 

From all this, therefore, I confess I find the conclusion 
irresistible, that there is a being of a new order to be 
placed at the head of the scale ; a being of which the con- 
stituent elements are the mass of human individuals, of 
which the distinguishing attributes are language, reflection, 
reason, and whose organic structure is composed of arts, 
institutions and sciences. There exists but a single object 
to which any of these characters belong by nature ; that 
object is the social system, and as I have universalized 
and personified it under the name of Humanity. Nor 
would this new species differ otherwise from the proxi- 
mate class of ethological man, than according to the gene- 
ral law of the natural series, that is to say, in being more 
special, more abstract, more complex. Indeed, its only 
(but an unessential) peculiarity in point of principle is the 
circumstance of being sole of its kind ; and thence, the ne- 
cessity of propagating by a succession of metamorphoses 
or a series of layers like the banyana. These are, in fact, 
the phenomena we call the decline, darkness, revival and 
migration of Civilization. So that, instead of being even 
new, except in the present conception of it, this species, 



ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL METHOD. 185 

though the latest, is of great human antiquity. Is it not 
the plKEnix of mythic history realized and recognized ? 
Crawling, primevally, for countless ages, is the forms of 
family, tribe, caste ; developed after, in the sword of the 
conqueror, the bible of the priest, and the code of the law- 
giver, to the gaudy expanse of an empire and the mobile 
unit of a nation, it was finally organized in the shape 
of city or republic, progressively by agriculture, by arts, 
by institutions. Through all these forms and at various 
intervals, as well of distance as of time, it expired and 
revived successively, from the scattered ashes of its own 
pyre, on the banks of the Ganges, of the Nile, the Ilyssus, 
and the Tybur. Along the latter favorite river it has lin- 
gered down to modern ages, in the political song of Virgil 
and the eloquent wisdom of Cicero. It hovers, in our days, 
around the banks of the sunny Seine, on the eagle pinions 
of mental freedom and scientifical philosophy ; and hold- 
ing in its beak a scroll, wherein the nations may read, on 
high, the worthy motto of the Gallic race, if not also of the 
French republic ; that noble three-worded device which 
at once scientifies to the philosopher, (1) and symbolizes to 
the people, the organic energies of the social system, the 
true trinity of the true God. A still grander resurrection 
perhaps awaits it, in future ages, in the more majestic val- 
ley of our own Mississippi; where, after moulting the 
generations of pedlers and politicians, and expanding into 
proportions bejfitting the father of flowing waters, it may 
soar to the visual amplitude of universal science, and so 
survive for evermore, in perennial vigor and virescence. 
Meanwhile we shall best contribute to so noble a consum- 
mation by dropping metaphor and resuming the subject in 
its literal aspect of mechanism — that more precise and fami- 
liar image by which the reader has been often aided in fol- 
lowing clearly the trackless mazes of the foregoing analysis, 
and which will also be found commodious in the ensuing 
application. 

(1) It is surely the very climax of singular confirmation to find ex- 
pressed and even arranged in these popular watchwords of the coming 
era, the social identity of our three mathematical formulte. But such 
is clearly the case. For Liberty imports the diffusive, the Numerical 
condition ; Equality, the distributive, the proportional, the Qantitative ; 
Fraternity, the associative, the organizing or Figured stage. 



186 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

For the latter task we seem now prepared. Already 
the theory stands established upon such a volume and 
variety of evidence, and fortified by such a system — com- 
pact, complete and complicate — of accumulated demon- 
stration upon demonstration, as perhaps no theory, however 
true, has been ever tested by before. This superfluity 
appeared advisable on several accounts ; such as the mag- 
nitude of the subject, the novelty of the views, but above 
all the nature of a certain critical class of readers, who — 
to shirk a truth, which it is not pleasant to their prepos- 
sessions to be brought to know, or which may ask the effort 
of some consecutive attention to comprehend—have a set 
of complacent and commonplace phrases, half concession 
and whole condemnation, by which they compound with 
the common decency of giving a reason for their rejection, 
and reconcile at once the exigencies of candour and con- 
ceit, llut I trust the cant about " fanciful analogies," 
" plausible reasoning," " ingenious hypotheses," &:c., &c., 
is what no serious reader of the foregoing pages will have 
the Jcicc to even mutter, — that is, indeed, if he have behind it 
a brain above a monkey's. Thus, provided, then, with a 
general map of all the regions and the routes of know- 
ledge ; with an exact plan or section of the organ, the en- 
gine of knowing ; and thirdly, with a complete syllabus 
of the modes of working and of steering it, is there no 
requisite as yet remaining to set the social car in motion ? 
Yes, assuredly and obviously. For with only the grand 
compartments of the machinery thus far enumerated, with 
merely motion, mind and method brought together face to 
face, there could have been neither civilization, nor so- 
ciety, nor knowledge, nor even man in the world. This 
one thing wanting, then, is simply the propelling 2)otccr 
called Motive. 



ANALYSIS OF MOTIVE. l87 

CHAPTEE IV. 

Analysis of Motive. 

% 48. As the human mind was seen to have but two 
preliminary principles of intellection, in attaining the full 
perception of Science, so has it consequently but two 
similarly previous principles of estimation, in attaining to 
the true perception of Duty. They are, also, alike alter- 
nate and antagonistic in both the processes, and in both 
alike co-operative to one harmonious end. To take a 
homely but happy simile from the philosophic Hudibras, 
their competition is like the strife between the human legs 
in walking. Indeed they might be called the legs of our 
mammoth social body, by which are executed those loco- 
motions, mental and moral, named Progression. 

In the mental or speculative order, we found them 
to be Resemblance and Difference ; otherwise styled induc- 
tion and analysis, or in the phrase of Locke, who perhaps 
first discerned them, agreement and disagreement. In the 
moral and practical order, they are Desire of Pleasure 
and Aversion to Pain. Our deduction here is sustained, 
as usual, by the honest instinct of popular language. All 
objects known to excite the two sentiments in question 
are classed and called, respectively, " good " and " evil ;" 
and with these would be found synonymous, under various 
degrees of distinctness, all the adjectives of a " moral" im- 
port in all the idioms of the Earth. The indistinctness, 
too, is itself confirmatory, and was occasioned in this ob- 
vious way. At first the qualities of Pain and Pleasure were 
considered absolutely, and of course so called. But with 
their passage to the stage of Relation, through the pro- 
gress of man himself, they were viewed relatively to du- 
ration, to degree, to consequences, &c., and the predomi- 
nance of either in such respects would then determine the 
denomination. This procedure would be noted by a se- 
ries of modificative terms. But the fundamental qualities 
would still be called evil and good. These, accordingly, 
we have seen personified into the proper appellations of 
the two theological authors of all bounty and malignity. 



IS8 VESTIGES Ot^ CIVILIZATION. 

§ 49. Of this dualism and character of all motive there 
is still a more significant illustration. In the logical duality 
of Resemblance and Difference, we identified in the pre- 
ceding chapter, the same peculiar or polaric opposition of 
direction which had been traced up through all organized 
existence. To every reader, no doubt, on my mere mention 
of pleasure and pain as the sole motives, it has occurred, 
that here was the mental or moral polarity of man and of 
Society. Nowhere indeed is the principle more palpable. 
For where is the pole more plainly negative or repulsive 
than Pain ? more positive and attractive than Pleaaure ? 
So in the Social body, also ; where, we found, the names 
to be Evil and Good. The modification then remarked 
in the formation of language, is an efiect of the constant 
tendency of the former of these polarities towards con- 
formity with the latter or Social. The aggregate strife 
between them would furnish a fundamental explanation 
of most the disputed problems of ethics and politics ; the 
variations, dipping and disturbances of the moral needle, 
which are perfectly analogous to those of the geologi- 
cal. But this is not the present object. I was only to 
show that they have all proceeded from one or other of 
two motives, that these motives are Pain and Pleasure in 
reference to individuals, but when generalized in a socie- 
ty are called Evil and Grood, and that they are respec- 
tively the physical and the moral poles of the two ob- 
jects, 

§ 50. How indeed can we question that they are not 
merely the supreme, but sole motives in the temporal or- 
der of things, when we find them to be so in even the 
spiritual 1 For through what other motives than hope and 
fear (the subjective aspects of polarity) are we appealed 
to by the divine author himself of our being and religion, 
who certainly should best know the composition of his crea- 
ture man ] Yet, knowing us, he does not trust to even the 
half-generous sentiment of our gratitude for his services in 
the past, all infinite as we profess to believe them. He 
knows that gratitude is still but selfishness in the attitude 
of a rower, who looks towards the past, but works towards 
the future. What fellow-mortal then can be conceived to 
inspire the motives called " generous ;" or can pretend 
that any such are really accessible to the breast of man, if 



ANALYSIS OF MOTIVE. 189 

he who is the essence of all thai is lovable, for its own 
sake and ours, has scarce affected to address himself to any 
impulse of the kind ; but has seen, it seems, the necessity 
of constraining us to love him by a double and most des- 
perate appeal to our selfishness. But what are these two 
incentives'? Why, precisely our two motives, of good and 
evil, or two poles of the moral world, or to speak in theo- 
logical style, the joys of Heaven and the torments of 
Hell. 

§ 51. In short, this pretended unselfishness of motive 
is, to any mind of clear conception, what might be called 
in polite French a contresens. Or, in blunt English, it is 
a greater absurdity than the pei-petual motion. When 
selfishness becomes duly enlightened, it must coincide in 
effect with all that is valuable or moral in self-devotion, 
patriotism and the rest. But even then it will be selfish- 
ness still ; the object or the view, not the motive will have 
shifted ; the position, not the property, of the poles will 
have changed. Meanwhile the fabulous disinterestedness of 
patriotism, love, friendship, &c., is but either the cant of 
the hypocrite or the creed of the dupe. In fact, persons 
of the former character would in general be found, I 
think, to have been the loudest champions of a " moral 
sense," in all its shadings. The most numerous advocates 
of this system of ethics, in its meridian of the last cen- 
tury, were Scotchmen ; a nation not proverbial for disin- 
terestedness or dupability. And as to the dupe, the only 
plea can be that he is not conscious of a selfish motive. 
But is his obtuseness to cancel the existence of the mo- 
tive which he fails to discern, and to convert, moreover, an 
immoral into a moral action ? If absence of consciousness 
be tantamount to absence of selfishness, then the animals 
who act from instinct must be the most " disinterested" of 
beings ; and the ass that serves its taskmaster be account- 
ed more unselfish — heroically, morally, spiritually, and the 
rest — than even a lover, a patriot, or a philanthropist. 

Proceed we, then, at last to put our equipped engine- 
ry in motion over the^ human track of ages, and in the 
winding train of History. 

17 



PART II. 

^ETIOLOGY OF HISTORY 



INTRODUCTOKY. 



§ 52. The incipient step in order is, to assign, on the 
page of the past, the three Cycles of our general division, 
Mythological, Metaphysical, and Scientific. 

In attempting this I do not affect a strict precision of 
demarkation which, had I the means to determine nicely, 
it would need a volume to elucidate. Moreover the object 
of this slight publication is not to give a set explanation of 
history. The purpose is to employ history — taken in its 
only undisputed character, that of a collection o? facts — 
for the inductive verification of the foregoing theory. 
The latter, after receiving this utmost additional sanction 
of which any scientific truth is susceptible, will be the very 
organ required, wherewith to proceed with due authority 
to the ulterior task of interpretation. Not that our pre- 
liminaries of proof may not be expected to shed mean- 
while a profound light upon the principal questions still in 
darkness or dispute. Such a consequence is implied in 
fact in their eflfiicacy as evidence ; and is my warrant for 
the title at the head of this page, which signifies, I may 
add, the doctrine of the causation of the past. I only wish 
it remembered that history is merely documentary, merely 
instrumental, in my plan, whatever may incidentally result 
from the performance. And this I premise, beside the con- 



AETIOLOGY OF HISTORY. 191 

sid'eration of a definite outline, in order to prevent the pos- 
sible objection, that I do not account for this or that epoch, 
or event, or institution. In the spirit of this distinction it 
also is that I feel at discretion to proceed with such of 
those historical documents as memory may supply ; which, 
for the rest, ought to be the principal, the most pregnant, or 
as Bacon would say the *• prerogative," instances. But 
the same consideration of sufficiency or suitableness to the 
project, not only permits but prescribes that I should con- 
sult in the distribution of it, the point of view the most 
familiar to the general reader. 

I am willing therefore to include in the first or Mytho- 
logical Cycle, the aggregate career of humanity down tO' 
the advent of the Christian religion. The predominance 
of the second or Metaphysical Cycle may be conceived as 
terminating with the seventeenth century of our era. The 
third or Scientific Cycle must by consequence be consi- 
dered as only commencing its visible emergence ; accord- 
ing to the statement, then a postulate, which introduced 
my Introduction. 

§ 53. This distribution, we are further to note, is irre- 
spective both of geography and chronology. It proceeds 
upon the principle of mental development in the species ; is 
graduated upon the main progression of Civilization. x\c- 
cordingly, most communities, not only of the present 
day but for indefinite ages to come, will find their place in 
the primitive section. So the second act of this great 
drama is still confined, almost exclusively, to the theatre of" 
Europe and its colonies. While only the leading nations 
of the former, and in these but a very limited number of 
individuals, have yet attained, at least systematically, to the 
Scientific point of view. For the human intellect, as will. 
be after evident, is scarce at present escaping, in even its 
ripest representatives, from the second stage of develop- 
ment. While the leading minds in most communities, and; 
the multitude of course in all. He strewn back along the 
penumbra of ontological adolescence, or enveloped in the 
** palpable obscure" of theological infancy. All this, 
moreover, at intervals which vary without limit, through 
not only the degrees of the three Conceptual Forms, but 
also through the divisions and subdivisions of the pheno- 
menal scale; and thus exhibiting a scene not unlike the 



102 



VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 



ghosts on the Stygian lake, describctl as rari 7iantes in 
gurgitc vasto, and wlio symbolized in fact this process of 
purgation. (§ 41.) 

l^ractically, then, the collective procession of our 
Cycles is not exhibited in an order (listinctly successive 
in time or place. This can only liaj)pen in an individ- 
ual mind, or in the abstract individuality of the species. 
The real state of the operation with respect to a particular 
country or ago, and thus to all ages and countries collec- 
tively, should therefore bo conceived under the diagonal 
form of the following scheme. This were in fact the most 
philosophic mode of stating all classification, while iho 
science is in a state of transition or incompleteness ; for the 
diagonal may be regarded as a proximate or average line 
of truth between the peremptory extremes of the vertical 
and horizontal. Kven the mere analytic lists of our three 
elemental scales should be so draioi out when we would 
contemplate them in the real conditions of their develop- 
ment. But this being now the purpose in reference to 
the Cycles, the arrangement becomes indisjiensable to the 
comprehension of the series. It does so, indeed, in full 
pro}>ortion as the terms here are supremely multiplex and 
thus protend a larger margin, so to say, for overlapping 
each other synchronously. The synchonism of the evolu- 
tions in question, might then bo figured in this manner : 
Mytliological Cycle. .... . . 1 

Mythological Cycle, Metaphysical Cycle. . • . 2 

Mythological Cycle, Metaphysical Cycle, Scientific Cycle. . 3 

Metnphysioal Cycle, Scientific Cycle. . 4 

Scientific Cycle. . 5 

This simple scheme, of five zones of coetaneous concep- 
tion, or as Kepler would have said (synonymously 1) the five 
regular Solids of man's universe, includes and delineates 
all the diversities of mental condition which maybe found 
at the same time among the different classes of the same 
nation or the diflerent nations of the earth, and at succes- 
sive times in the same people or the whole race ; even as 
the five geographical zones of the physical globe com- 
prise of course, all its varieties of climate and produc- 
tion, and here too, it is curious to add, because of an ohli- 
quity of revolution. Thus the first line and Cycle would 



ETIOLOGY OF HISTORY. 198^ 

contain all savage and barbarous countries. Tlie second 
would describe Europe at the Scholastic epoch of the 
middle ages. The third represents the extreme motliness 
of its general mind at the present mf;mcnt, when meta- 
physics hold, we see, the middle place of predominance. 
No community would as yet be found completely within 
the fourth zone, except it be France, which has nearly 
sloughed off even the popular superstition. As to the 
fifth, it is all in the grand future, and is the Paradise which 
the philosopher comes to prove, not projjhesy, to man- 
kind. With those few explanatory precautions against 
misapprehension, we however now leturn to the simple 
series of these terms ; which may be still reproduced from 
the diagram by only reading the second and third as if 
they were shifted, either upwards into the horizontal line, 
or backwards into the vertical, at present occupied ?jy the 
overlapping. 

§ 54. There would remain alike notification respecting 
Motion and Method. J3ut the order being in all correla- 
tive, I may refer to the Mental sample. As, however, the 
forms of Method must be the salient tests of our verification, 
it may be proper to present them, in this unfamiliar though 
the natural order, to the eye as well as the intellect of the 
reader. To economize space I resume the series in con- 
tinuation ofthe Cyclical diagram, and must also confine it to 
the class of methods I have termed the Generic. Of these 
it will be remembered there are three to each Cycle, 
making nine in all. But the triad of the primary period, 
namely, nomenclature, terminology, and syntax, are visil^ly 
to be regarded as the mere materials of method, not meth- 
ods themselves in any proper or practical sense. It was 
accordingly in this way that the general term of mythology 
was transferred, as before remarked, to the initial method' 
of divinification. The remaining six, being thus provided 
with the means of operation, are found to rise and to re- 
volve within all three of the Conceptual cycles, upon the 
same principles of succession and synchronism, as follows :. 



03 <u 

♦J *J 









13 



13 



P 

13 
> 



m 
Pi 
O 

a 

O 

^; 

w 

o 



'bo 
o 

.2 ^ 



o 



O 



'So *bb 
o o 

'55 

o 

&. 



w 



o 


o 


> 


> 


(D 


Q 


^ 


^ 


C 


P 


o 


.2 






'-Jj 




rt 


CJ 


o 


o 


«p 


tp 



r2 Jtf 



P O 






JSTIOLOGY OF HISTORY, T0^ 

It is needless to remind that each of the members is, 
moreover, attended throughout this grand march, by at least 
a further sub-system of three species. Also that the file, as 
thus specifically protracted, must pass processionally over 
the nine Categories of the cosmical scale. The statement of 
all this, which would fill some pages in a vertical column, 
becomes virtually impracticable in the diagonal form. 
Nor happily is it requisite. The foregoing specimen will 
serve sufficiently the double purpose here in view. One, 
I own, was to hint to the reader, both for his own sake and 
mine, what a multitude of matters are always to be con- 
sidered before he should allow himself to turn critic upon 
the conclusions of the present theory. The other and di- 
rect purpose was that above alluded to, of better prepar- 
ing a suitable set of criteria. But the most commodius 
are, I think, the methods of the Generic rank. In the 
first place, their middle position in a progressive series 
would render them the best exponents of its law; they 
being thus the mean proportionals, or rather the ^^ partici- 
pativc mean," to adopt the more significant expression of 
the Schoolmen. Another fitness is that, while advancing 
from the vaguer extremity just enough to be explicitly 
characteristic, they stop short at that point of specialty 
where confusion must shortly ensue ; if not from the mere 
multiplicity of the forms, under any circumstances, at least 
from its enormous disproportion to our narrow limits. 

§ 55. But, moreover, I have still to add, that any pos- 
sible deficiency in this direction will be supplied by two 
powerful auxiliaries, which have the property of sweep- 
ing across the entire series of the phenomenal scale, the 
one in the aspect of action, the other in that of specula- 
tion, and both in all desirable gradations of minuteness. 
The former is the double criterion of Motive. The other 
is the fundamental principle of all mental procedure (§ 40) 
from the Concrete, General, and Simple, towards the Ab- 
stract, Special, and Complex. Such are, then, the three 
concurrent and complemental systems of tests which are 
to verify or falsify our recomposition of human history. 
They are in various aspects resumes or representatives of 
all the others, as decomposed in the preceding parts of 
the treatise. Their indications should be infallible, if inter- 
preted aright. But to this condition, in large part personal, 



196 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the reader liinisclf must contribute something. lie should 
not merely j>ay a careful and consecutive attention ; the 
attention should come informed by a conception, full and 
firm, of the principles or theory to be tested. These I 
cannot be expected to keep reiterating at each step ; it 
would bo irksome alike to reader and to writer. Still 
less can the application hold up in hand continuously 
the various threads of the historical series. Such an 
efibrt would demand a quantity of ever-recurring ex- 
planations, which of themselves would consume a dozen 
times my whole space. And this not merely from the num- 
ber and the variety of the transitions. The chief occasion 
of prolixity would be the defectiveness of the language 
(as far at least as I may pretend to aciiuaintanco with its re- 
sources), its want of proper or any positive terms to describe 
the series of a progression intermediate its three average 
points of main ascension, declension, and culmination. 
The provoking embarrassment from this source, it is not 
easy to imagine without having tried, as I am doing, to 
exhibit the course of nature progressively, relatively, 
dynamically, by means of languages, first constructed, and 
for the most part still maintained, u})on the very opposite 
conceptions of the subject. I must therefore beg to be 
spared, as much as possible, this extreme difhculty, which 
loaves me, to be popularly intelligible, but two objection- 
able expedients : an extent of circumlocution incompatible 
with my limits, or of imagery no less unsuitcd to the 
austere dignity of science. And this request is the less 
unreasonable that it quite concurs with the double requi- 
site, I should say the two commandments of philosophy 
for our age ; the first, that nature should be contemplated 
as masons construct arches, fiom a series of summary posi- 
tions towards the interjacent centres ; and the second, 
which is " like unto the first," but interdictory, that moun- 
tains should not be studied through a microscope. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE 



DIVISION. 



§ 56. In submitting, therefore, our theory of Civiliza- 
tion to the test of experience, the propositions to be veri- 
fied, the axioms to be applied, are these : That mankind 
must have proceeded universally and progressively, 

— In conception, from the Known to the Unknown, 
from the Concrete to the Abstract, &c. ; 

— In action, from the stimulus of either pain or plea- 
sure, the Motives of Evil or of Good; 

— In method,hoxh. of action and conception, upon three 
formulas which are known as the Mathematical, and term- 
ed Number, Equation (or Quantity) and Figure. 

Action, Conception, and their final conjunction — these 
three divisions, then, embrace the limits of all experience, in 
the largest sense. They are in fact, no other than the three 
departments, of Arts, Institutions and Sciences, shown 
above to represent the tissues ganglionic, spinal and cere- 
bral; or, in larger aggregates, the vascular, the muscular, 
and nervous systems, which compose the abstract organ- 
ism of the great social Leviathan, of which we have hither- 
to been analyzing the anatomical construction, and hasten 
now to characterize the physiological manifestations. 

In doing so, the three departments must be begun 
with in the order stated. It is evidently that of their his- 
torical rise and logical dependence. Arts are at once in 
nature, in notion, and in necessity more concrete, more 
spontaneous and more imperative than Institutions ; and 
institutions are antecedent, in the same three respects, to 
the corresponding grade of systems or sciences. 



198 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

CHAPTEE I. 

P7iilosoj[>7iy of the Fine Arts. 

§ 57. Perhaps the requisite definition of the arts we 
term " fine," as distinguished from their rude progenitors 
the " useful," would be this, that their tendency is essen- 
tially communicative, social ; whereas the others look es- 
sentially to the selfish and individual. . 

As, then, our business will henceforward be with the 
attributes of Society, and only with individual men as its 
corpuscular constituents, the range of illustration may be 
restricted to the former class, which is also named less 
crudely the ^sthetical. 

The iEsthetical Arts may be divided into those of Ex- 
pression and of Impression. I employ the terms in their 
radical or etymological sense ; expression to denote those 
arts in which the concern of the operator would seem con- 
fined to the mere effusion of his feelings into the air; im- 
pression, to denote those others which involve the ulterior 
effort to impress the artist's meaning upon some material 
body, as a means of communication or commemoration. 
They would also be well distinguished by observing 
that they address themselves, the one description to the 
ear, and the other to the eye. Or, philosophically, that 
the arts of Expression are executed in time, the arts of 
Impression in space. Or better still, perhaps, that the for- 
mer have their essence in the operation, the latter in the 
result, the effect; in fine, the one in action, which is objec- 
tive motion in the performer, the other in energy, which 
is subjective motion in the spectator. 

The arts of Expression are Language, Music, Poetry. 
The arts of Impression are Giyphic, Plastic, Painting. 

But neither of these two classes could have attained to 
artistic excellence without the aid of the other, term by 
term. Thus in general the arts of Expression are perfect- 
ed through impression ; that is to say translation from the 
fleeting plane of time, into the fixed one of space, where 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 199 

the parts are all confronted for comparison and composi- 
tion. On the other hand, the arts of Impression owe their 
chief aesthetic value to the energy inherited from their pre- 
decessors, and which, with the usually felicitous though 
blind propriety of popular language, we find accordingly 
to be denominated " expression.^' This action and reaction 
is still more pointed between the special terms. That lan- 
guage gave rise to glyphic is now notorious enough, and 
also how it was reacted upon in turn by hieroglyphics, 
that is to say, the first or rudimental stage of the art of 
writing. Plastic, too, received its earliest lessons in sym- 
metry from music (the termination ic is strictly analogous 
in both these terms, as also in glyphic) ; and they were re- 
paid by the contrivance of instruments, which it is needless 
to say contributes to the advancement of an art. As to 
poetry, Vhile it gave the first subjects and object to paint- 
ing, it receives in turn, from the art of colour, a vivid embod- 
iment in space. So far, however, the space is, in all three 
cases, superficial. There remained, then, ample verge for 
an ultimate transformation of both the planes of art into 
solid or figured space. And hence a third series, which 
I omitted in the first division, being less attentive to the 
order of dogmatism than development. If this class too 
must have an appellation, I can think of no popular term 
more distinctively expressive than figuration. 

The arts of Figuration, then, are Sculpture, Architec- 
ture, and Statuary. Their correlation with the two pre- 
ceding classes, both in the serial and vertical orders, is 
equally clear and consistent. In the former aspect the 
arts of Figure present a compound of Expression and Im- 
pression. And thus to test them vertically or term by term, 
the fieelings (the sesthesis) expressed in hanguagehj words, 
and impressed in Glyphic by lines, are exhibited in Sculp- 
ture, by a raising, a deduction of both those media into 
semhlanccs. So Music, which expresses feeling by measure 
in time, and Plastic, which impresses it by symmetry in 
space, are combined in the successive shapings, the serial 
proportions which constitute the grand liarmony of Archi- 
tecture. And the art of Poetry, in fine, expressive of feel- 
ing by character, imagery, and that of Painting which 
embodies the poet's image in profile, are both convolved in 
the solid and all-sided figure of the Statuary. Beyond this, 



200 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

it is also clear, there can be no aesthetic art ; for mankind 
can sympathize with no conception of a higher order than 
that of the full ideal of their own attributes. 

§ 58. Thus far for the nice coherence of the Arts 
among theniselves. But how does the deduction or distri- 
bution also stand in respect to the pre-assurances of the 
theory 1 I must say the reader would be a poor proficient 
in the comprehension of either side, who has not seen with 
a degi'ee of astonishment the complex exactness of this 
new counter-proof It will suffice then to add a remark 
or two on the less obvious of the analogies. 

The most comprehensive is the succession of the en- 
tire series of fine Arts, in the order predicated in our first 
axiom, or from the Concrete to the Abstract. As this has 
been already proved, even as late as the foregoing section, 
respecting the vertical order of both the three classes and 
their members severally, our present indications need but 
view the latter horizontally. Thus, then, language is 
more concrete and so more ancient than music, which in 
fact is (or rather was originally) a complication of words 
with measure ; and again, music is more concrete than, and 
so anterior to, the art of poetry, which is the convolution of 
rhythm into strophe or figure. So Glyphic, which is, in 
turn, an impression of figure into surface, is more con- 
crete, simple, early, &c., than Plastic, which accordingly 
adds the complication of protruding the surface itself, and 
by a hint derived fi'om the included prominences of its 
predecessor ; and that Painting must succeed them in as- 
cending abstractness and later origin, is pretty clear from 
the curious fact, that as the final term of the triad, it com- 
bines their respective principles, of counter- sinkin gand 
relief, in what maybe designated its two elements of shade 
and light. Next, in fine, in abstractness and difiiculty, fol- 
lows Carving, which brings out its figures positively and 
by sole means of the reality, not by the negative expedient 
of contrast, like Painting ; yet still like painting, it brings 
them out but half-way. The extrication, the abstraction 
of the solid figure becomes complete in only the posterior 
art of Masonic Architecture. But here also the composi- 
tion of the figure was merely structural, that is to say by 
a classified arrangement of the products of sculpture ; in 
other words, it was by aggregation, not by evolution. The 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 201 

latter point which is the climax of abstraction and compli- 
cation, in the matter of art, as it is in nature, was attain- 
ed but by the statuary ; who combines in the human figure 
an epitomized expression of all the lines, surfaces and 
solids in the universe. 

In the last series I have purposely indicated the specific 
forms, of which Architecture is the genus, as arranged in 
the diagram. (§ 46) But to avoid unnecessary complication, 
I omit a formal distinction in both the two preceding, where 
the generic arts are properly Sculpture and Language, the 
most immediate or kindred species being respectively 
Carving and Speech. 

This alkision to lines, surt'aces, &c., declares an equally 
strict conformity to our other axiom, respecting the three ma- 
thematical forms. For the three conceptions named are but 
the serial complications of the simple notions of Number, 
Extension, and Figure. And accordingly these are visible in 
each of the series. In the first, for instance. Speech is an 
individuated, an " articulated," a numbered vocalization ; 
music, an extended, a proportioned vocalization ; poetry, 
a rhythmical, a recurrent, ^figured vocalization. And at 
the other end, in the third series, we find Sculpture pro- 
ducing forms in the isolate, the numeral state ; architec- 
ture, in the extended, the proportional ; and statuary com- 
bining both in the spherical consummation of figure. 
Thus to find in the ^sthetical arts the operation of the 
mathematical laws, will doubtless seem an odd conjunction 
to the generality of readers, who, having always been 
taught the reverse, are scarcely blamable for not know- 
ing that men mustye^Z quite as mathematically as, or some- 
what more so than, they think. Yet this odd conjunction 
or rather this fundamental identity may be followed out 
through still stranger manifestations, by reverting to the 
observations upon any or all the three analytic scales, in 
the preceding portion of the volume. 

As to the remaining test of Motive, the entire group 
of Arts in question proceed directly from the second, or 
pursuit of Pleasure ; even as their prototypes all do di- 
rectly, from the earlier stimulant of Pain. It is a distinc- 
tion quite concurrent with that which opened the present 
chapter, but perhaps deeper than any yet offered either 
18 



202 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

there or elsewhere, between the Arts which are termed 
necessary or Useful and the ^^^slhelical. 

With these remarks on the special characters and clas- 
sification of the latter arts, in tlieir collective conformity 
with the conditions of the theory, 1 now proceed to test 
them individually, for the operation of the same laws, in 
\heir internal economy and historical evolution. 



LANGUAGE. 

§ 59. Since all man's means of perceiving, all the things 
he can perceive, and of course his modes of perception 
are ultimately resolvable, the first into one faculty, the 
next into one relation, and the third into one procedure or 
method, it is clear the material instrument for prosecuting 
this method must have obeyed the same great uniform 
unity. This instrument, we saw, was language ; exclu- 
sively, in the first Cycle and essentially in all. And ac- 
cordingly the fact concluded was established on that occa- 
sion, respecting language in its logical sphere. But the 
princi})le applies the same to the grammatical. Nor is it at 
all more obvious to recognize amid the multitudinous forms 
of a long (irgumc7it, that the whole is but the vaiious play 
of a single element — the Proposition, than to discern that 
the apparent diversity within this sub-organism itself, is 
but the like modification of a still more elemental unity. 
And the latter has in fact been ielt by even the gramma- 
rians ; who, no doubt through mere instinct, assigned to 
one of their " parts of speech" a position paramount to all 
the others, or at least an appellation which is synonymous 
with speech itself, namely, that of Verb. 

But this fundamental element of human language should 
also offer, like its several correlatives, a succession of three 
generic and nine specific transformations. The fact of the 
specific series is recognized by all the grammars, at least 
in the coincidence of number. In point of character and 
classification, however, the case is deplorably different. 
To trace the theory in both these aspects, we must, in re- 
ference to the latter, recur to the axiom of diminishing 
concreteness and generality ; and for the other, refer to 



MYTHO]>OGICAL CYCLE. 203 

either of the three analytical scales, but perliaps prefera- 
bly to the mental Processes (§ 14), as most immediately, 
involved. Both these tests ,will be canied abreast, as a 
mutual check upon one another, through a region never 
yet penetrated by a steady ray of science. 

1. Of the mental Processes the primary series consists, 
in the order of diminishing concreteness, of Sensation or 
perception isolated, individual, numerical; Memory or 
perception associated, qualitative, linear; Imagination or 
perce{)tion objective, figured, self-sup[)orted. ]3ut the 
grammatical elements answerable to these several grada- 
tions of idea are self-evideritly, the inierjeciion, the ad- 
jective and sub.s tardive. While, however, thus progres- 
sively restrictive within the series, the plan of naming is 
still indefinite in reference to the speaker ; he can only 
designate things in position and co-existence; whereas 
the great concern was to define the changes in these re- 
spects. 

2. These changes are of three descriptions, succes- 
sively more complicate, and might be call, d relative, posi- 
tive, and common or general. The first are changes of 
position in the speaker only, towards surrounding ob- 
jects; and being of course the earliest "known," were, 
by our axiom, the earliest named : such names compose 
the verbal form which grammarians style the 'pronoun. 
The next or positive chatjges are those that pass in the 
objects themselves, and so are signified by the part of 
speech we call the /vczr^/ciip/c. An i last of this second 
series comes the definitive of mutual changes, by means 
of which they, so to say, articulate into, and revolve upon 
each other; it is needless to add that this is the article. 
Nor do the results concur less nicely with the three ana- 
logous mental Processes, which are, it will be remem- 
bered, Reflection, Abstraction and Generalization. For 
the former is, we know. Perception explaining pressure 
or confined motion, througli the medium of the latent mo- 
tion in man himself, and so the expression as well as ex- 
planation would wear the mask of personality. The par- 
ticiple denoting action as conceived apart from all sub- 
stance, is thus, we see, the special analogue or product of 
Abstraction ; and I may add in passing, by way of speci- 
men of the general conformity, that it fits no less signifi- 



204 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

cantly to to the corresponding form in both the cosmical 
and the methodical scales. These forms are in fact re- 
spectively Mixture and Instrumentation; and they are 
those in which we saw motion and induction appear most 
active ; but the participle, which takes its title from 
being also deemed a mixture, presents the motion ex- 
pressed by the Verb in that stage of abstract activity, 
which makes the species be taken for the whole thing: no 
otherwise than as we saw chemistry confounded with en- 
tire physics, and the experimental method with all Induc- 
tion. And the general reason of a correspondence, thus 
perceived to be so profound as to hold even in the inci- 
dents of illusion, may be seen on glancing at the various 
diagrams, where all those forms obtain respectively the 
central position in their several series. But to return; 
Generalization, the remaining Process of this second class, 
is represented, with its correlative specialty, in the two 
articles : this is declared in the very epithets, of " indefi- 
nite" and " definite ;" although they would be perhaps 
belter termed general and specific, being veritably the 
"genus and species" of the all-unconscious gramarians. 

3. The rest is now not difficult to be classilied. The 
third formation is universally (I would not except geolo- 
gy) a compound, a synthesis of its predecessors, and con- 
sequently the consummation of the scale. In this final 
stage our testing Processes are Reason, Comparison, 
Method ; that is to say, progressive complication or modi- 
fication, in the first case, of existence with existence or sub- 
ject with subject; in the next, of attribute or predicate 
with attribute or predicate; in the third, of predicate and 
subject, both, with other predicate and subject in the sim- 
ilar combinations termed sentences. But these are pre- 
cisely the familiar provinces of the 2orcjwsition, said to 
connect nouns ; xheadverh, defined to modify, that is tosay, 
to connect attributes whether qualities or properties, ad- 
jectives or participles ; and the conjunction, which connects 
sentences, or in other words, connects Verbs in their co- 
pulative development of predication. The very name of 
the latter form attests this final grade of abstractness, im- 
parting as il does, the property essential to all language. 
And thus does the conjunction at once complete the syn- 



MyJUOLOOICAL CYCLE. 206 

tactic circuit, and characlorizo the dittputcd boundary be- 
tween the grammarian and loj^ician. 

§ GO. To thiw truly admirable corroboration of the 
theory by the art of Speech, throughout the mere instinc- 
tive groping of its specific series, 1 have still to add the 
confirmation of the Generic order. And here e.s{>ecially, 
the sole perplexity J feel is, how to chor>,se from amid a 
throng, a tesselalion of multifarious congruities. The ihw 
permitted, 1 therefore take almost at random. Jtecurring 
to our mental cril(;riorj, for instance, there were three con- 
ceptual forms, named ip order, itesemblance. Difference 
and Unifi>rmity. Jjut such aie also the respective charac- 
ters of our three classes of verbal forms, of which the first 
proceeds upon resemblance among Co-existences, the next 
upon difference among Co-occurrences, the last upon uni- 
formities of combined likeness and unlikeness, that is again 
upon resemblance of Co-o[;eration. We have here, it will 
be seen, a second confirmation of the verbal triad in the 
three Predicables of the cosmical scale. And the three 
systems of the methodical would reflect them no less fijith- 
fully, even in the polar construction of negative, positive, 
and circuitous. Of course they, in short, conform to the 
three cycles of the general division, and give, each, its pecu- 
liar character to language at the several e[>ochs. Thus the 
first, which conceives nature by groupirjg objects into vary- 
ing images {§ 0), must express itself by a no less fluctuat- 
ing aggregation of their signs. The second, arranging and 
elongating its conceptions irjto series, will also catenate the 
terms on the corresponding principle, that they be fixed 
at the type extremity and flexible at the oth(;r. The third 
epoch, which brings the organization teirned science, into 
Ijuman thought, gives to language that complete freedom of 
circulation, among its elements, around the radix as an axle 
or pole, which is called in animals locom<jlion (§2'j), in ideas 
progression, and which constitutes in commonwealths the 
true condition of liberty. For examples, more or less im- 
perfect, see the savage idioms of this continent, the classic 
languages of Greece and Rome, and the dialects of modem 
Euro[)e respectively. This deduction, like all the others, 
finds, in fact, a clumsy recognition in the recent classifica- 
tion of languages, into Agglutinated, Inflected, and Analy- 
tic. But of these terms it is now obvious that the first is 
18» 



i?00 VKSTU;iCS OF civil l/.ATrON. 

i\ TiiisiuMurr, tlio sccoiul nuMt^ly (oUM;il)lt\ niul tlic third is 
c't)inpK'ttly |iit^|)i)slorou8. For (li^-i^/ufinddon, if 1 uiuler- 
stiiuil tlu^ iJtMniaii nuMiiini;' o{ llio autlioiir, ilt)os not 
i-Ikii;u-Um i/.i^ tlu^ piiniitivt^ ;uul AnKMiran-Iiuliiui stnio 
tuM' : lliis wouUi btMlor l»o calKul gohilinous, in an!iU>oY to 
tlio tiansitivo staft^ tlinMigli wliirli niattor all (Muci gos 
iVoin the h(|nid to tho i>iganic loi ni ; hut. tho tiuo tlcsciip- 
tion coulil call it cvlhilar, as being accroscont in nil direc- 
tions, even like its lower analomies. the algie or the fungi. 
Pursuing this univiMsal principU^ to tlu> sect)n(lary li>rnm- 
titMi, tlK» tissue termed ** inneclion" wouKl rej>resent tho 
fibrous, through \vhich language begins to have, as we say 
colKuiuially, a head and tail to it. or as the learneil t^xpresa 
tliesanie. to ac»]uire polarity. The thirtl and liiial method 
would answer tt> tlu> nervous tissue; ami as instead t)f 
being " analytic," it is, o\\ the ciuitrary, synthetic, it might 
beti'rmcil the oiganical system. All three respectively ci)r- 
res|nMiding ti) the graminafic ttMins ofourgeueiic division, 
wliiili givi' in turn, by tluir pii^dominance, its special 
charai-tiM- to each lormalion. Thus our third class of 
verbal forms are scarce t^ver met wilii in savage lan- 
guages; while alrt^dy. t)n the other hand, it constitutes 
almost exclusively the scientific idiom of algebra. 

Again, ilescending from jihiNtsophy to the familiar 
^valks i>f syntax, we lind the same triplicity pattMit on all 
sides. For t^xamplt\ in the three systems of viMbal in- 
llection, calK\l ciMuparison, declensit)n, conjugation, and 
which are modilicil respeclively upon l"]xisteiic(\ Space, 
and Time. Then, in each of these proceduti's. in turn, 
tho three degrees ol' tho first ; tlu^ three di'clensions of 
tho second, for a fourth wluMcver numbered is a mere ro- 
ce[)tacle of hctcroclyUv'^ ; and tinally, the threo conjuga- 
tions, for here too, there ari> but thriH\ although a fourth is 
commonly atUled, oitluM- lor the exigency just mentioned, 
or from the ignorance ol tlu\grammaiians who sometimes 
base it, as in the Latin, upon an irrelevant distinci ion of 
quantity. Also, the great iHvision of the so called verbs 
themselves into active, passive and neuter, and where tho 
principle has escaped the grammatical compilers with 
mert^ly a dimness of designation and a dislocation of tho 
natural onler ; for the latter woulil reverse the places of tho 
first and iho last terms, and all tliroo might bo now named, 



MyrilOLOOICAL CYCLE. 20^ 

upon a pliilosophic banin, a.s Sul^jocfivo, 0})jf;cf.ive, Rocip- 
Tociil : f.hat Ih, fho firHt would oxprf^.sH action uh cortcrcAcA 
to tho Huhjoct rnonjly, no rnattor wliotlior man or inani- 
rnafo agontn; the hccoik] nn cjmcc'wci] in paKninj^, in accre- 
ting lo, or tcrrninaf ing in, the object ; wliilo the third, as ap- 
porfaining to tlio riper slagoH of conco[)tion which nocds 
not loan upon cither ahutmcntH and knowH paHHivity a 
mere illuHion — deHcrihcH the phenomena in the broadly 
positive and rniitually active condition of* rdation. Thus^ 
already the verbs called " passive" are disaj)pearing be- 
fore tlie K.eciprocal, in the French, which is the most per- 
fect, without a second, of human tongues, and of which 
this is one of many testimonies not yet detected by its best 
panegyrists. IJeside lliis tlireefold division of verbs, it is 
true we hear of others, such as deponent, irregular, aux- 
iliary, &c., and in j^ropfjrtion ail the idiom is barbarous 
they may muitij^ly to any variety, i^ut all such are the 
passing results of the primitive mixture by amalgamation, 
or of llie later transitive steps between tljo tliree legiti- 
mate; forms ; only mistaken as in moods, cases, and the rest, 
through ignorance;, for types. And these legitimate types 
in mf)od, by tlie way, how curiously coincident ! being, in 
order the Indicative, or relating to existence; the J^oten- 
tial, or relative to power, lo perHfmalily ; and the subjunc- 
tive which is expressive, as the name itself declares, of the 
two preceding predicates conjoined into relation : the op- 
tative, imperative, and other pretended moods will wtll 
exemplify the transition shades alluded Vo, they being 
really the suljjunctive witli ellipsis of the antecedent. 

Hut to revert to the spurious verbs, there is one im- 
portarjt exception, and with wliich I must close a list that 
might run on lo llie end of the volume. Have the gram- 
matians rjver told us why there can be but three Auxilia- 
ries (exchjding of course the bastard foims just explained)? 
Or, why, in the primitive stage of language, there have 
been none at all, as in all the savage idioms of the earth ? 
Or at a less barbarous age, but one and that one the verb 
to he, as in the " classic" and clumsy language of ancient 
Rome ? Or only two, as in some of tlie languages of mo- 
dern Europe; while all three are developed normally in the 
French alone? Or why, in fine, they should be etrp, de- 
voir ^ and avoir 1 No ; they seem to have quite overlook 



208 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

ed all this, with the rest that we have been explaining; as 
have indeed their metaphysical masters. Bat our three 
progressive cycles of the sole element of speech, proceed- 
ing slowly from extreme concreteness towards the abstract 
evolution of their three conceptual principles, reveals the 
whole. These principles, we know already, are Life, or in 
the abstract expression, existence ; Will, or in the Scientific 
conception of it, duty ; and Reason, which takes in art the 
pragmatic form of Tiabituality . But with these the kin- 
ship of the three auxiliaries is unequivocal. The first 
case is self evident; and the last was above explained, I 
think, in discussing Aristotle's categories, wherein it con- 
stitutes the final term. The middle alone was somewhat 
dubious, at least in our EngUsh idiom ; where power and 
will, the concrete correlatives, are still predominant over 
duty, and make that chaos which is proverbially incom- 
prehensible to foreigners, and not discerned much more 
nicely by the natives themselves. 

And this casual introduction of the three principles of 
all conception, made by merely following up the Generic 
elements of all expression, suggests another confirmation 
of both divisions at the same time, and one too striking not 
to tempt me off* again for a moment. I allude to the 
" three genders" of the grammarians. Gender is not a dis- 
tinction of sex, as is commonly supposed. It is a division 
of class, or hind, as the word imports, accordingly ; the 
first, and of course a philological, division of things. 
Now, if the theory be true, that man must interpret nature 
after his own consciousness, and that this conscious- 
ness was first embodied in the motive force called Life, 
it must be that the earliest sketch of a classification of 
all phenomena would instinctively distinguish them into 
Animate and Not-animate : and such was, in fact, the 
'' gender" still so puzzfing to philologers, of all the sav- 
age idioms of this continent. But, again, when conscious- 
ness becomes mature for the deeper principles of the 
second Cycle ; when man, by social combination, begins 
the reaction upon nature which misleads him to feel her 
despot, as before he felt her slave ; then would the cause 
of such convention, the reflex energy called the Will, sup- 
plant the ruder sentiment of life as the law of motion ; the 
human owner of the mystic force would be imagined the 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 209 

final object, or as repeated now in banter the " lord" of the 
creation, and his, personality thus made the model for re- 
distribution of the active contents. The resultis seen accord- 
ingly, in the personal gender of sex. From the nature, 
as well as subsequence, of this secondary division, it would 
be limited to the Animate or nobler branch of its predeces- 
sor. On the other hand, the negative or Inanimate depart- 
ment would fall spontaneously behind the positive and 
more prominent classes in the new nomenclature, though 
long before them in the history both of language and 
creation. Now this deductive genesis of the three gen- 
ders of the grammars, termed masculine, feminine, and 
neuter is, I affirm, attested by, and would consequently go 
to explain, all the eccentricities on the subject, in all the 
languages of mankind. My task is not to solve the diffi- 
culties or show the errors of philologers, or of the writers 
on any other of the thousand topics of my survey, how- 
ever provoking the occasion and important the accomp- 
lishment. Here, however, it is hard to forego a passing 
indication. 

It is then a corollary of the assigned growth and gra- 
duation of gender that the division would be formed his- 
torically at various points of the development, whether in 
the same language at successive epochs or contemporane- 
ously in different languages of unequal maturity, or even in 
different nouns of the same language at the same time; 
with, in all, an ultimate tendency to recede, in the sexual 
form, as previously in the Animate, from the illusory exten- 
sion to Nature, back again to its original type in Man. But 
this is an exact description of the actual condition of the 
case. We have seen already the primary stage in the infant 
idioms of the American savage. Farther on, the sexual 
substitute is just established, as in the Hebrew, which 
counted but two genders, and confounded the neuter with 
the feminine — not having yet had time to consummate the 
transformation of the division, by reconstituting the Inani- 
mate gender into a definite and third category. This, in 
turn, if found long accomplished in the far more forward 
Greek and Latin, and even the Sanscrit, which had each 
of them its three genders, and which, moreover, in the- 
common rule of giving all three genders to the same noun^ 
and sometimes two and sometimes none, that is to say, the 



210 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

" doubtliil," afford a still more striking specimen of the 
transition. For the living applicability of the different 
genders had been successiye. They were huddled to- 
gether chiefly by grammatical compilers — a race without 
perspective, and who, operating upon the dead carcasses 
of those venerable languages, saw nothing of their laws of 
life and of progression. However this progression, with 
respect to the point in question, is presented towards the 
last of the stages predicated, in the English ; where, 
through the long attrition of the mongrel ingredients, not 
any high maturity of the national intellect, the attribute of 
gender is dwindled back to a iew pronouns. 

But why — and this conducts us to the principal appli- 
cation — why does gender linger latest in the pronouns ? 
Because, you say, the pronouns denote persons, who possess 
sex. But how came sex to be a mark of gender, the 
means oi^ generic division 1 The mode, the order, and the 
occasion of the fact are now explained, and there remains 
but to indicate its deeper principle. This has also been 
unfolded in our three divisions of all phenomena, to which 
the three genders exactly correspond. The neuter is the 
sex of apparently inert existence; the masculine refers to 
the visibly and violently active, that is to say, the merely 
physical department of nature ; the feminine symbolizes 
the last or organic division, wherein the forces appear 
to be passive, because the operations are progressive, and 
become manifest, but periodically and'productively. Nor 
should we marvel that a division of nature so consonant to 
the reality was effected by the animal instinct of man, 
her complete epitome. Gender, in fact, has always been 
referred to some such origin ; but never with much atten- 
tion to the objective distribution, because with no true con- 
ception of the attribute itself as being successive in its two 
systems, still less as social in the sexual stage. Yet this 
crucial extreme of our prhiciple may be seized, as it were, 
in the literal act, where the Latin idiom made the word pop- 
ulus (meaning the patrician, the virile, the volitional, or gov- 
erning order) of the masculine gender, while the femi- 
nine is given to plebs, that is to say, the multitude, the subject 
and productive member of the political connubium. But 
as in notion so in expression ; and the triple system found 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 211 

thus pervading even the transient forms in all languages, 
must have prevailed a fortiori in the fundamental. It is ac- 
cordingly, now quite obvious in our generic stages of the 
verb, the first of which applies to phenomena as inert or 
co-existent; the second, to such as move or otherwise 
modify the former by change of relative position, of place, 
or of form ; and the third, to the still more complex, the 
co-operative order of things, where the two preceding 
classes are conceived at last in combination, and the indi- 
vidual terms are aVjstract sentences. These three for- 
mations of all language, with their respective parts of 
speech, might therefore be termed the Denominative, the 
Determinative, the Conjunctive or Syntactic. But here, 
again, are the identical forms with which we saw (§ 36) 
method make its logical beginning, under the titles of 
Nomenclature, Terminology, and Syntax. Another in- 
stance of that harmonious '• fitness" which I feel weary of 
reproducing, and one upon which Fielding's Square would 
have perorated rapturously. Enough, then, upon the 
modification, both generic and special, of the verb ; I add 
the result in our usual simple table of series, affixing the 
so-called " auxiliary," but properly the Generic, forms as 
at present incompletely developed in our own tongue. 

Interjection; Adjective; Substantive— Be. \ 

Pronoun; Participle ; Article— May, Can, rTi^/, (Ought.) >Verb. 
Preposition ; Adverb ; Conjunction— Have. ^ 

§ 61. But it may be still asked, whence the raw ma- 
terials, so to speak, in which those multiform modifica- 
tions received their audible and after visible embodiment ? 
I repeat from the Interjection alone ; as is demonstrated 
by its primal position in the series. This, indeed, is a 
complete reversal of the ordinary position. But that is not 
my fault. It is the fantasy of the philologers, who not un- 
derstanding these half-formed vocables, threw them down, 
in desperation, perhaps, to the bottom of their vacillating 
lists. Finding them duly unanalyzable (from the contrary 
ultimacy now assigned), and also expressive of mere 
bodiless emotions ; but forgetting that emotions or sen- 
sations are the roots of knowledge, and consequently 



■212 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

their signs the source of all naming, the grammarians 
imagined the Interjections to be something barren and 
beatific ; a sort of Vestal virgins of Language, which 
were confined to the sighing solitude of the human heart 
alone, even as their Roman and Christian prototypes had 
been consecrated to heaven. 

The procession must have occurred in this wise. 

Indication, the end of all language, was first effected 
by gesture, the gesture of pointing in case of an object, of 
imitating when an action. This is the notable " language 
of Action ;" of which all primitive nations retain ihe his- 
torical tradition — though, strange to say, without remem- 
befing a trace of the language of Eden. Even in the 
most civilized communities it is repeated to this day, both 
instinctively and artificially, for explanation or for empha- 
sis. And if the word of Demosthenes be not taken for its 
efficacy, we may conceive its capabilities, from the deriva- 
tive art of pantomime. 

To the troglodyte, however, it could manifestly serve 
no further than the objects were active, or present, and the 
indicator also visible or tangible. What then was to be 
done in case of darkness or of distance? Nature had, as 
usual, the expedient in preparation. Accompanying the 
indicative gestures, there had been from the beginning a 
certain suitably varied utterance of the voice, itself a 
synergic gesture of the internal organ of the tongue, and 
which, after long observation, under guidance of a com- 
mon sympathy, would from supplement, become substitute 
to the merely muscular signs. This is the spontaneous 
origin of the language of Speech, and which accordingly 
took its name of Verb, from the air-beating action of the 
vocal organ. 

This phonetic class of signs were the sort of vocables 
called interjections. Originally they were all significant 
and monosyllabic, for the utterances were impulsive, and 
the notions individual. The vocal composition com- 
menced with articulation, and articulation was initiated in 
this way. The interjections, like the gestures they had 
been suited to and supplanted, were of two kinds, accord- 
ing as they signified by suggestion or by imitation. Now the 
imitation by means of voice, was applied to objects emitting 



jvitthologicaL cycle. 813 

sound, whether naturally or by voluntary provocation. 
And as many such sounds would be more or less com- 
plex, the effort to characterize them must exercise the 
vocal organs into the requisite flexibility to respond, by 
articulation, that is a jointing of the signs, to the nascent 
progress of the intellect in combining the things intended. 
But, meanwhile, it did much more. It is the process 
which supplied the substantive or primary stratum of 
iSpeech. This fact is strikingly recorded in its Greek title 
of onomatopeia, that is to say name-making by excellence, 
asif this had been the only method. And in truth a full 
third of the nomenclature of the great Indo-Germanic 
family of languages, is found traceable, at this day, to the 
devise of vocal imitation. The reader need not be 
cautioned against the absurdity of the rhetoricians, who 
lug this onomatopeia into the long catalogue of their 
" figures," not doubting that man had been an orator, 
not to say a talker, from the Qgg. 

But this vocal picturing, so to call it, was a name- 
making, as the etymology strictly denotes. It represented 
the Verb in the statical aspect, and so producing the spe- 
cific forms which I class as the Denominative. But these 
appellatives by imitation, while mere substances were 
their object, must have also been inclusive, indeed, ex- 
pressive, of action. This duplexity is the happy hin^re 
whereby was joined to the first formation the secondary 
layer of vocables, those of sympathy, of suggestion; and 
which, indicating subjectively, personally, oppositely, that 
is to say by limitation, by definition of external ob- 
jects, compose the pronominal class of particles I call 
Determinative. They also present the Verb in its more 
abstract, its dynamical phases, and thus furnished to 
Speech the other element of antagonism, which enabled it 
alternately to follow and to forward Thought, in its pro- 
gress of combination, of composition. 

1. The Verbal composition, of course proceeding, 
like its mental counterpart, from Concrete to Abstract, 
must offer three successive methods. In the first, the in- 
terjectional elements would be jumbled into rude groups, 
vj^ithout other rule than a due mixture of the two descrip- 
tions. The rest must be determined by the casual group- 
ing of the objects, in their casual relation to the particular 



'J 14 ykstk;es of civh.i/.atioN". 

speaker, who was, of course, a principal jnut, and whose 
solo eflbrt was to string together the several names of the 
more impressive, by the process of articulation which ho 
had learned from onomatopeia, and so produce a like but 
complex vocal picture by Aggregation. Of this we have, 
as shown above, a full and familiar example in what have 
been termed by the very worthy but not very profound 
Dr. Du Ponceau, the " polysynthetic" idioms of the Ameri- 
can-Indian savages. iSeveral of these, however, appear 
to have reached a coarse commencement of inllexion, the 
destined route to the second stage of composition. 

2. Here the process was, of course, by series, as in the 
former stage by groups. The catenation, the limitation, 
must be first applied to the end, or sujjixcil, as the phrase 
is, to the name to bo modified : hence the moveable, tex- 
tile, and tJ'ansitive composition styled conjugation, declen- 
sion, comparison, &:c. But the terminations or suilixes 
being Determinative particles, the composition is thereby 
closed in this direction for the time, and nnist therefore 
resort to the other extremity, by the thence called mode of 
p7'c/ixes. And this ex]KHlicnt is rendered possible by the 
fortunate ambiguity pointed out in the Denominative or 
primary class of vocables, and by which, as soon as their 
elliptical and active signification is concluded or rendered 
static, so to speak, at the one end, the dynamical atHnity 
is presently turned to the other side, to invito a new accre- 
tion of the pronominal definitives. Hence the formation 
called " inseparable" pronouns, participles, articles, and 
which had advanced to some extent in the Amerivan-In- 
dian languages, but is brought out more characteristically 
in tlie less barbarous Hebrew. It is in this way, too, that 
the ai-ticle, supposed to be absent in both those instances, 
is concretely involved in the pronominal prefixes*— thus 
adding a demonstration of the theory now submitted, 
which ranges the pronoun as progenitor of the whole line, 
and the article as its generalized expression. The pro- 
geniture and progression in a somewhat later stage are 
presented in, for instance, the Latin, where the pronoun 
had disengaged itself from the thraldom of prefixation, but 
still remained a substitute for the article. Such is also the 
grammatical condition of tlie Russian idiom ; which is ac- 
>cordingly an exact analogue of that so-called classic Roman 



MVTIIOLOGICAL CVCLK. 215 

tongue, so much magnified by pedants in us, but Hcrni-l^ar- 
barian to the last, beneath the gloss of a foreign literature ; 
even as the people themselves who spoke it, and \vhr>se 
state of intellect it reflected, might in tlieir notorious in- 
ca[)acity for all invention, because for all aV^straction, be 
called the concrete Saxons or Sarmatians of ancient civi- 
lization. 

JJut if the genesis be not clear in the comparison of dif- 
fererit languages, from the universal ignorance of thi» 
their law of classification, it may be traced even within, 
the literary epoch of the same idiom, as in the rapidly pro- 
gressivo dialect of the finely sj)eculative Greek. Thus the 
Iliad, it is known was written or rhapsodized without the 
articles. These particles, several centuries hiter, make 
I think, their first appearance in Herodotus, because^ 
among the earliest of the prose, that is to say, precise 
writers. Yet still it is only the neuter and indefinite article 
TO ; and this, moreover, remained common to, or desig- 
nated also, the more abstract classes of pronouns named 
demonstrative and relative. It was only the logicians and 
metaphysiciarjs of the philosophic schools that gave full de- 
veloj)ment to this and the other articles. I>ut why does the 
indefinite take this long precedence of the definite, rather 
than the reverse ; the neut:er, ratlier than the masculine 
or feminine? It is a question of which all the " philoso- 
phies of language" in existence might be challenged to- 
give a rational solution. This is now supplied sponta- 
neously in the above explanation of the Genders, which 
showed the neuter to correspond to the inert order of 
mere existence, the most concrete and therefore obvious 
of all phenomena; while the masculine was the abstract 
generalization of physical action, and the feminine, of the 
chemical and vitalizing energies. And all this, it may be 
well to add, by no profound process of abstraction ; but 
sinnply through the sure direction of man's instincts or 
affinities statical, dynamical, and composite, with nature.. 
In fact the vocal signs by which these personal symbols 
are attributed, have long lost the semblance of abstract- 
ness which they thus derive from individuality — a cir- 
cumstance, by the way, explaining why the primary or 
indefinite article, is formed in most languages from the 
numeral adjective of unity. They are only clarified 
from concreteness by ages of popular civilization,, succeed- 



21G TESTIGES or CiTILIZATXOJ. 

ing the period of prcfixation, to which it is time we had 
returned. In fine, then, among other things, it is now 
plain why no barbarous idiom has ever had the articles, 
any more than the auxiliaries, in distinct development : 
while we find, at the other extremity of the philological 
scale, the French employment of them so frequent as to 
seem somewhat fantastic to the coarser intellect of their 
Saxon neighbours. 

3. Respecting the prefixes in general (from which the 
discourse has been tempted ofl" to throw some light upon 
the wretched state of the portion called the articles,) they 
may go on to be repeated, after an alternation of suffixes, 
until the compound became too cumbersome for use. 
Take for instance, the formation of the term ^ion-conform- 
ist. Supposing for the radical particle, the m, which 
makes it form, represents the suffix that first converted it 
into a substantive. To this succeeded the prefix con, which 
thus determined it into a verb, or in other words, gave it, 
from a statical, the dynamical direction. After which came 
the termination ^'^i', denoting habitual existence, and so 
transmuting the compound back again into a noun. When 
finally the alternation is repeated at the other end by the 
superposition of the peremptorily determinative non. 
Accordingly the comj'>06ition could proceed no further on 
this side, and had, moreover, from its length, become fit 
for nothing except theology. Now this example brings 
home to the senses the mode of failure and consequent 
fall of the secondary order of composition. To the serial 
succeeded, therefore, what may be called the circulating 
system. 

This third and only remaining of grammatical forma- 
tions is known as the collocation of words in the sen- 
tence ; that is to say a freedom from the former trammels 
in this respect. This freedom resulted, as usual, from 
the very pressure of the preceding process ; w^hich stamped 
the dim primordial vocables with sides, gave direction 
to the Determinatives and dynamism to the Denomina- 
tives, brought out in both the relational, the verbal 
affinity of origin which disposes them for organical and 
independent coalition j or (to slip the term w^hicli has along, 
no doubt, been present to the reader's mind), established 
t\ie polarity of the nine elements of Speech. This gram- 
matical liberty may be witnessed in its utmost license 



MVTIIOLOGICAL CYCLE. 217 

in the classic Latin, and as settling into order in the 
much maturer Greek. But being, of course, like the 
coetaneous political aspects of both these nations, a wild, 
directionless democracy, it could not last. Its decline, 
however, duly commences with the close of the present 
Cycle, and so must be postponed to wait its turn in the 
Ethical. 

_ § 64. Such, then, are the curious results of an applica- 
tion to the subject of Speech, of our universal theory of 
mental procedure from the Concrete to the Abstract, and 
by means of the three successive formulcc named Mathe- 
matical. For these forms, as also shown in all the physi- 
cal creations of nature (ch. 2), are now manifestly identical, 
m character and succession, with the three formations 
of the Verb, both in generation and composition : the De- 
nominative and Conglomerate with the isolate and the 
Numerical ; the Determinative and Catenary with the 
Cohesive and the Quantitative; the Conjunctive and the 
Circulative with the organical and Figured. Again, the 
first stage, represented by the American-Indian idioms, 
exhibits the inteijectional or individual vocables, as yet 
without affinity, without character, without crystallization; 
for language is a crystallization, like all other organisms! 
Accordingly its second stage has the irregular accretion, 
the indiscriminate affixation or infixation of the f^jrmer. 
drawn out into the longitudinal arrangement, where the 
composition, we have seen, proceeds upon the strictest 
principles of polarity; at first by ''suffixes" alone, or the 
system called inflexion, which is the one-sided polarity of 
the crystal proper, and had been commencing in the 
ravage languages referred to; after in the line of " pre^ 
fixes," which alone grammarians style composition, and' 
which gives the process the double polarity of the veo-e- 
table ; and then, in fine, by the alternate application, above 
exemplified, of attractive and repulsive particles, until the 
growth in this case, too, is arrested by external circum- 
stances, or more commonly, by the very elements taken in 
for Its increase. I can well conceive the sardonic and 
self-complacent smile of a professorial pedant on perus^ 
ing this comparison. But to come to the level of his com- 
prehension, if he will turn to the dictionary and count the 
multitude of polysyllabic words which begin, that is, have 



218" VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIONS 

their latest prefix, in de, dis, di, in, im, ir, nc, non, and the 
various other modes of j>riratio?i and negation, and give a 
more rational explanation of the enormous disproportion j 
then the argument can, without concern, forego the luxury 
of atYrighting him with so strange an innovation upon his 
grammatical routine. Meanwhile, however, I must pro- 
ceed to say, that as the second mode of composition cor- 
responds to the grade of polarity termed simple, so the 
circuitous or Voltaic, or, as I would distinguish it, electric 
presents the analogue of the Circulatory system of col- 
location. 

§ 65. Such have been the original elements and the 
progressive formations (in proportion to development) of 
all the languages of the earth. And we have thus obtained, 
by a simple application of the theory, this complete analysis 
and explanation of a system of facts, of which the bulk re- 
main a sort of mysteries to the herd of philologists. No 
doubt the exposition, which I have as usual been forced to 
condense, will appear meagre to such as may measure it 
by the habitual verbosity on this subject. How can prin- 
ciples be so plain and processes so almost childish about 
wliich libraries have been written, within even the last 
century. When not many months ago a " learned" Ger- 
man is heard to atniounce a six-volume project of his, on 
the conjugations (I think) of the Sanscrit or something of 
the kind, and, by way of earnest of his engagement, give 
an introductory quarto, of only eleven hundred pages (quite 
moderate for a Crcrman professor) ! — in view of this, I say, 
the literary vulgar will probably deem it a shallow presump- 
tion to attempt at all the general subject within the compass 
of a few paragra})hs. Yet this will not deter me from saying 
that, if the principles applied be sound, there is more of the 
true philosophy of language to be learned in these few para- 
graphs than in all the extant tomes together, whether of 
grammar or philology. And why should the declaration 
be in>lecorous in me who claim no credit for this or other 
mere illustrations of my main position. No doubt the Pro- 
fessors, &c., referred to, would have done far better with 
my accidental means. Besides I may be permitted to add 
that my confidence is not predicated, in this or most other 
cases, upon the proofs I now adduce but still more upon 



MTTHOLOCICAL CYCLE. 219 

the belief that I am prepared at any moment to back them 
individually with a volume of examples. 

§ GO. Nor is it only the regularities, the uniformities 
of Language that the theory unfolds thus neatly, but the 
so called anomalies as vs^ell. I invite the studious reader to 
take the crucial test of our Indian idioms, collect their pe- 
culiarities from amid the mass of decanted platitudes with 
which they are daily dished anew by our dabblers m phi- 
lology, and compare them with the grammatical series as 
above reformed and rationalized. Not one of them that 
he will ncjt find it convert into a necessary conclusion ; not 
one, I aver, so far of course as well authenticated or ob- 
served. Let me instance one or two among the most fun- 
damental of these mysteries. 

One is the gent.-ral fact that the savages in question em- 
ploy most or all their " parts of speech" as verbs, and even 
submit them, it is said, to conjugation. In this we now see 
there was no magic, but quite the reverse ; for such, it seems 
is their real nature, and must appear their leading charac- 
ter in proportion as they remain concrete or uncomplicate ; 
that is according as the speakers are deep within the primi- 
tive Cycle, when phenomena are apprehended all sensa- 
tionally — actual sensation in the percipient himself, impu- 
ted sensation in the oVjjects impressing him — and so of course 
expressed or imaged by that operant mode of the verb, to 
which we ignorantly now appropriate the general title. 
This mental infancy is also the cause of the absence, 
throughout those idioms, of the third and most abstract se- 
ries of the nine forms, the preposition, adverb and con- 
junction. In fact the absence or undevelopment begins 
already with the article, the final form of the second se- 
ries and highest abstraction of the pronouns; and the pro- 
nouns themselves cannot as yet be conceived apart, but are 
concreted, as before remarked, to the vocables of the 
primitive class. Thus admirably does a whole platoon of 
these pretended eccentricities resolve itself, stage by stao-e, 
into the grand unity of our principle. There remains, how- 
ever, I must admit, a glaring discrepancy. The au- 
thorities (such as they are) seem to be uniform in reporting 
that the adjective, too, is wanting or at least is extremely 
rare ; while, on the other hand, the adverb is of particularly 
frequent occurrence, and regularly conjugated like the par- 



220 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

ticiple or so called verb. Now here, if the account be true^- 
is an inversion of arrangement. The adjective, as per di- 
agram, holds the second place in the primary rank, and the 
adverb, the analogous position in the final ; it is the latter 
then that should be absent or rare, and the former that 
should be present and prominent. And such I take the 
liberty of thinking to be the case. The adjective, in the 
sensational, the active acceptation which precedes its sub- 
sidence into the elementary abstraction called qualltyy is 
naturally mistaken for the adverb, and the more easily 
as the idioms are ill-known and elliptical. In fact a rem- 
nant of this confusion lingers slill in the most forward lan- 
guages ; I mean the application of comparison to certain 
adverbs. For all such are really adjectives with merely 
adverbial endings which are overstepped unconsciously in 
the comparison. In fine, modality being essentially abso- 
lute, no pure adverb can be graduated, any more than a 
preposition or conjunction. These are all three as 1 have 
ranged them, alike and alone, in the relational or abstract 
stage which the grammarians call indeclinable. And so 
the only fact which threatened our classification with a 
flaw, turns out to be a crowning corroboration. 

Another of the standing wonders of our American-Indian 
languages relates to their mode of word-making, by what are 
termed particles of transition. 13y which is meant, I believe, 
an aggregation of monosyllabic vocables, of which some 
come into the new term as representatives of entire words, 
and others from a fund approjDiiated to the purposes of 
composition. Now here are respectively the Denominatives 
and Determinatives of our two first orders, in living but 
somewhat forward operation ; and this facility or rather 
indifference for all modes of combination is the molecular 
fluctuation which v/e saw the character of infant Lan- 
guage. It was this fluid state of the particles, — a state 
which, in language as in nature, is the primary condition of 
organization, — which also led, no doubt, to the unanimous 
opinion of philologists, that those savage idioms are capa- 
ble of multiplying their vocabularies ** to infinity." Con- 
sequently that they are much more copious than the culti- 
vated tongues; a corrollary often declared, indeed, and 
sometimes emphasized with a shallow sneer at the oppo- 
site pretensions. But the inference is a gross illusion. It 



MYTHOLOGICAL CVCLE. 221 

is that of the uncalculatiiig eye which takes the thhd of a 
nurnbor for the whole or treble, according as it moves in a 
rniscellatjeously jostling crowd, or in a compactly marslialled 
army. Though natural I call it gross, for none with a 
tinge of pliilosophy could admit the possibility of the pre- 
eminence in question. Writers of this sort are still in a 
state of head to credit, that in some unknown inland the 
human inhabitants were found winged or web-looted. 
They are utterly ignorant of the philosophical anatomy of 
language, both in its statical and progressive complica- 
tions ; even as the so-called historians, alluded to in the 
introduction, were of the laws of civiHzation in quite 
analogous respects. 

Concerning the copiousness of the Indian idioms, the 
fact in fine must be that their vocabular elements fall f;xr 
short, perhaps down to half, of those of the Chinese, which 
are said to number some four to five hundred. No doubt 
the possible cornbirjations of even three hundred syllables 
would far exceed the rate of moveable composition in any 
living language, and even outnumber their actual vocabu- 
lary. Jjut what are the combinations, fixed or flexible, 
of the latter language by means of syllables, compared 
with the combinations by worda, that is to say the colloca- 
tions in the seiilence % The latter, supposing the vocabu- 
lary, like our own, to be some forty thousand, may produce 
a multitude of virtual terms, of sentences and their clauses, 
so inconceivably enormous that all the mathematicians and 
perhaps all the men of the human race, since it learned 
to reckon, would not suffice for the simple enumeration. 
But the composition of the savage is a physical juxtaposi- 
tion, appreciable by the mere material senses; ami pljilo- 
logists have these, if not often much beyond. The synthetic 
composition of the civilized language is overlooked be- 
cause it is aVjstract, organical. 

Hence the ludicrous error in question, and a thousand 
others from the same source. Such, for instance, is the 
"philanthropic" mania of our day, which sets the entified 
appetites called "rights," of the individual man, above the 
laws of the organism of which he forms but a passing atom. 
To these philosophers the man is unified by being encased 
in a continuous skin (no matter of course whether the same 
be fair or otherwise), and is equalized, by their animal 
sympathies with his welfare or his wants \ but the finer 



222 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

tissues and aspirations of the social system are still invisi- 
ble ; and being, at the same time, undeniable, irresistible 
in their etlects, society seems a mere engine, accidental or 
artificial, serving only for the oppression of the lower strata 
of its own constituents ! Such would also be the philoso- 
phy of the foundation stones of the Parthenon. Mean- 
while the State I repeat, is really no less individual, and 
even animate, than any of its physical members. It is 
merely more porous, so to speak, more highly organized. 
Yet not more the former, than in strict proportion to the 
relative sizes of the two systems. In the social, however, 
the idea of unity, which I have ventured to propose, is 
quite excusably unrecognized, from this supreme abstract- 
iiess of the organism. But there was, besides, another im- 
pediment no less peculiar and pertinacious, I mean the 
reluctance of human self-conceit; the individuals being, in 
this instance, not only parties in interest but also the judge. 
Tliere is not, then, the same apology for the admirers of 
the Indian idioms. 

These, in fine, would be found in like keeping with 
their savage speakers, in all the rest ; instead of the excep- 
tional perfection, and metaphysical refinement so absurdly 
ascribed to the latter in the matter of language alone. I 
may add that the pre-eminence so long attributed to the 
classical dialects and recently imparted to the still more 
concrete Sanscrit, seems to rest upon the same ignorance, 
in due proportion. An ignorance, in the former case, per- 
petuated by the pedagogues, whose school-boy inculcations 
cling to most men in such matters ; and in the latter, pro- 
pagated especially by the Germans, perhaps from the more 
uncivilized sympathy of the national intellect, and corres- 
ponding similarity of idiom, with the secondary and meta- 
physical formations of speech. 

§ C7. Perfection, refinement, copiousness — nonsense ! 
Reader, imagine, on the one hand, those misshapen mass- 
es of gristle and blubber and bone, of which the modern 
earth turns up the relics to the wonder of the multitude, and 
which, huddled together by nature in her earlier essays in 
animal structure, disappeared with the progressive changes 
of climate, soil, &:c. Conceive on the other hand, man,, 
with that fine fiexibility of organization and resulting ver- 
satility to all vicissitude and circumstance which give su- 



MYTrlOLOCICAL CYCLE. 223 

prcmacy to the individual and promise perpetuity to the 
BpecioH. In thewe two terms, you will have the exact 
image, in extent a.s well as analogy, of the comparison be- 
tween the language of either the West or East Indian and 
that of the Parisian philosopher. To affect a preference 
for the former is, in principle, a declaration for the cycles 
and epicycles of Ptolemy, against the sublime simplifica- 
tions of Kepler and Newton. I dwell upon this illusion to 
Hpare me future repetition ; for it recurs under every 
phase of our survey. Thus, because ages of common 
sense produce no epic poems or new religions, it is conclud- 
ed that the old of each must have been the result of in- 
spiration. Because societies, still more than individuals, 
can know nothing of their early infancy, nor how they 
passed, through a thousand ages, to their social adolescence; 
as acute a man as Archbishop Whately continues to insist, 
that civilization must have been the primitive state. To 
Language too was given pre-eminently the like celestial 
origin ; and for no better reason than that communities at 
all capable of speculating had never witnessed it in process 
of primordial formation. And even the fact of childhood's 
learning to use the language of the parents— and this in 
fewer months perhaps than it would <;ost them years in 
later life — were this fact, I say, as unffimiliar as the child- 
hood of the race or a nation, there is no doubt that his 
m(jther tongue would be deemed a special gift of Provi- 
dence to each and every " articulately-speaking" individ* 
ual. Not only so, but now that the national inf^mcies, also, 
begin to come down from the clouds, the [>hilologists persist, 
we see, in hinting some mysterious causes — a previous civi- 
lization of the savage, a peculiar faculty of his race, a pre- 
posterous estimate of our civilization, &c. — to explain the 
same materially necessary symmetry which they can solve 
in the bee or beaver, by the simple dissyllable instinct. 
The thing reminds one of the grocer's wife, who having 
disbursed heavily and vainly to have her adult and par- 
venu daughters taught that climax of polite accomplish- 
ment, the art of babbling in broken French, was astonish- 
ed to hear that this mystic tongue was spoken in Paris by 
even the children. 

So pertinaciously prone is man, the half-civilized 
scarce less than the savage, to estimate all things by the 



254 ViJSTfGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

actual condition of his own consciousness ! Whatever he 
feels it would be now impossible for himself to accom- 
plish is attributed to preternatural power or pre-emi- 
nent skill. While as yet he knows of external pheno- 
mena but their rude resemblance to his own actions, he 
endues, we have seen, the objects of nature with his ac- 
tive principle of life. When, in progress of after ages, he 
has come at length to learn the application of a series of 
means to the prosecution of a settled purpose, he thence- 
forth detects design, not only in the savage of his own 
species, nor merely in the beaver and the bee, but even 
in the growth of the tree, in short in the structure of the 
universe. With however the distinction, so naively cha- 
racteristic, that for all the other agents he concludes a 
divine designer, in whose hands they are but so many 
machines J while man alone is " free," or his own designer. 
But 2)ress him for his evidence, and he can never go 
farther back than his actual incapacity to conceive the ar- 
rangement otherwise. That is to say, he makes his own 
conception the criterion, the measure, nay the creator of 
Ills god, as Fitche declared the thing expressly. He ! 
before whose miserable and mole-eyed vision the horizon 
of this conception has been fleeting at every step from the 
beginning, even as the horizon of geography before his 
physical migrations ; and who will end, no doubt, with 
seeing the former, as he now has done the other, vanish 
east into west and north into south, until he is equally 
brought to comprehend the self-sustaining globe of Know- 
ledge. (1) 



MUSIC. 

§ 68. Induced by the fundamental bearing, the educa- 
tional importance and the chaotic condition of the subject, I 
liave dwelt, I see, beyond my limits, upon the art of lan- 



(1) Je mo garde de preter k Dieu aucune intention, was accord- 
ingly the axiom of the great naturalist St. Hilaire. It is the death 
knell of the reign of hypothesis and the motto of the ages of science. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 225 

guage, or rather Speech. The others for tljo most part 
must be dispatched with greater brevity; some, indeed, 
I fear, with little more than a bare mention. 

The next of them in order was Music. This art, ac- 
cordingly, gave their generic name to the presiding god- 
desses of all the others. Its intimate kinship with memory, 
the second term of the mental series (as witness the con- 
trivances of mnemonical verses)^ is a farther sanction of 
the present allocation. In fact, its character of all but 
ultimate simplicity is obvious. Excepting s^oeech, it is 
the earliest ai t in which childhood takes part or pleasure. 
In the childhood of nations too, it was by music that tlie 
savage is said to have always been sootlied into society. 
The first preluding of a hand-organ in one of our streets 
brings all the servants and negroes within hearing to the 
doors and windows. The song and sentiments of a cow- 
herd, warbled as wildly by an artless woman, can inflame 
extravagance and even enthusiasm in a community of 
traders : a feat which perhaps parallels the ancient fable 
of Orpheus, who brought tears down the " iron cheeks" 
of Pluto. By the by, it is this extreme primitiveness, this 
merely sensuous simplicity, that makes music, alone of all 
the arts, so much the " rage^' with our own people. I 
would rather, of course, have left the thing the opposite way, 
where the newspapers have settled it, as a mark of our 
superior civilization. But truth is inexorable to the im- 
pulses of personal vanity, even when, backed by " the 
majority," they wear the lion's skin of patriotism. 

This error of placing Music unduly forward on the scale 
of progress is, however, confined to the popular class of 
writers. Most philosophers have conceived it to be ante- 
rior even to speech, and the original occasion of articula- 
ting : tongue-tied persons, they urge, are still observed to 
free the utterance by intonation ; and, again, the earliest 
mode of literary composition was poetry. But the main 
position is a mistake on the other side. The arguments 
too are fallacious. The instinctive expedient of tuning 
the voice is but a help to articulation ; as such it doubtless 
had much to do with facilitating and even forming the pro- 
cess in the primitive man ; but as such, and by the very 
fact, it could not be that process itself, for which, moreover, 
we have above disclosed an origin much more natural, 
20 



226 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the imitative naming called onomatopeia. But vocal mu- 
sic is a more refined and continuous articulation, and con- 
sequently long posterior to the verbal. As to poetic 
composition, it is clear the elements must have been still 
anterior, and these were also articulated w^ords. Not 
merely was it so historically, but necessarily. Without 
words, in fine, the simplest melody were impossible to the 
primitive man. Without them no modern savage is ever 
known, I think, to hum a tune. He may merely whistle it, 
like certain birds ; of which, besides, the highest proficients 
do not pass the compass of a few notes, although they too 
may be taught to vary, to articulate their monotony, by 
imitating man, as man had been, by imitating nature. Mu- 
sic, then, in its primordial, its properly vocal, stage \vas em- 
broidered, so to speak, upon the semi-physical tissue of 
speech ; even as speech had crept along the still more con- 
crete ground of objects. And from the vocal, the instru- 
mental modes proceeded by the same progression. Thus 
the instrument was first abstracted from the person of the 
performer ; and even this step, but by an intermediate com- 
plication, in superposing an external and artificial organ 
upon the natural organ of the voice. This genesis followed 
■out through the history of musical instruments would yield 
a philosophical analysis of the art. But for such a task I 
Slave neither space nor information. 

§ 69. What is more to the present purpose is, to prove the 
^conformity of music to the three mathematical forms. But 
tthis Elone of all the arts is already recognized, and indeed is 
rigorously demonstrated, to rest on such a basis. This was 
'the meaning of the mythic attribution to Pythagoras of the 
invention at once of music and arithmetic. The import is that 
both were reduced to^system by the same principle ; a princi- 
ple being always indicated, in rude ages, through the medi- 
um of a personage. This principle was Number, the most 
general of the laws of nature, and so the most simple and 
concrete. Consequently, also, the earliest both known sci- 
entifically and practised aBSthetically. For speech is too 
palpably useful to be allowed the rank of a fine art ; at least 
until it blossoms, a good deal later, into rhetoric. So that 
Music might be slidden back a step to the head of the se- 
ries of Arts, and thus consort exactly with the traditional 
affinity. Its proper place and principle, however, are those 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 



227 



of Quantity, that is to &ay admeasurement, not by numbers 
but by ratios. Tlie Numerical form had place in the iso- 
late vocables of Speech ; which are drawn out, as it were, 
or lineated by the modulations of Music, and these in turn 
must, of course, receive the convolution into figure, from 
the following and final art of the primary triad. 

In conclusion, our remaining test, the Conceptual princi- 
ple of the physical Cycle, must equally be traceable in the 
primitive character of Music. But what could Force have 
had to do with this seemingly gentlest of the arts 1 With- 
out going into refinements, is it not visible in the well- 
known preference of all barbarous nations for the more 
obstreporous instruments ! Thus, of all European instru- 
ments, as well as of the native, the favorite one with the 
Hindoos is the big drum of their foreign plunderers. The 
Opera is in large part a Gothic offspring of this infafit 
taste. Another sign of its less rude but not less real pre- 
valence is present, where you see dexterity of execution 
preferred to delicacy of expression. Hence the antics and 
grimmace, so disgusting to a person of taste, which are 
assumed in this country, by European performers of even 
the first class; who, in fact confess (behind the curtain) 
that they do so upon system ; deeming it safer, in case of 
any thing below the clangor of a full choir, to trust to the 
eyes than to the ears, to the mechanical than to the musi- 
cal, the muscular than the mental, appreciation of the spec- 
tators. 

But I must quit the theme of Music, which has indeed 
been touched at all for little more than to merely desig- 
nate the line of filiation, and note the features of the second 
element which, by reaction upon speech, produced the 
latest and so the greatest of the three phonetic Arts. This,, 
according to our tabulation, is the art of Poetry. 



POETKY. 

§ 70. The synthetical, the composite, the figured char- 
acter of poetry is already declared, as usual, in the very 
name ; which signifies, the reader knows, a formation, a 
composition. 



228 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION, 

The art, in its aspect offor77i, might in fact be defined, 
Ml application to Speech, of the laws of Number, Mea- 
sure, and of Figure above all. Here then we find evolved, 
on the very threshold of the examination, the three mathe- 
matical formulas, and in strictly express terms. Also, the 
cause why Poetry has been in fact, as above alleged, the 
earliest method of literary composition ; and not merely 
the literary, but of all mental composition whatever — 
which is the very circumstance, of course, that gained it 
the generical denomination. It is thus that imagination, the 
analogous Process on our mental scale, is deemed pre-emi- 
nently the faculty of creation ; because it was, and is, the 
first to construct into figures or images the materials sup- 
plied by sense and cemented, as it were, by memory. In 
fine, tlie definition is equally true to the parentage just as- 
signed the art. 

But these three sources, successive in tiriie and pro- 
gressive in complication, must have also determined a 
general division of the subject. That is to say. Poetry 
must have turned j^rincipaUy, first upon its element of 
words, upon bare narrative ; after upon that of metres or 
music ; but later still upon figures or fiction. Quite ac- 
cordingly the art exhibits but three fundamental forms ; 
and their traditional appellations refer beside to the re- 
spective elements, with more, if possible, than the usual 
etymological felicity. The earliest stage is termed the 
Epic, meaning literally, verbal ; the second is the Lyric, so- 
denominated, symbolically, from what no doubt was the 
primitive organ of instrumental 7nusic ; the last is the 
Dramatic, importing expression by representation. For 
Expression, it will be remembered, is the generic char- 
acter of this primary tribe of arts : expression first of the 
exploits witnessed or supposed to be witnessed ; then, of 
sentiments and emotions inspired by what was said or seen ; 
expression, lastly, of the conception which should be form- 
ed of what was done, as interwoven with and reproduced 
by what was felt. In short. Expression objective, subject- 
ive, and composite or synthetic. 

The succession and its order, from the Concrete to the 
Abstract, are thus too manifest to need historical confir- 
mation in the main series. The trial may, therefore, pass to 
the generic members individually, where the same princi- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 225 

pies must, we know, have operated, even down to the 
lowest subdivisions. Besides, this plan of verification 
offers two collateral advantages — that of illustrating by- 
implication the progressive march of the fundamental triad, 
and that of rescuing, by the direct result of an historical 
co-ordination, the largest range of our poetic varieties 
from the present chaotic condition. 

§ 71. The Epopee, then, or the primitive cycle of 
Poetry, must involve, like infant history (of which it was 
in fact the predecessor), a c<jmplication of three specific 
stages; it must have proceeded upon individuals, upon 
events, upon institutions or usages (§ 3), and of course in 
this the progressive order from the more simple to the more 
complex. But this order, it has been demonstrated over 
and over, implies that the first species related to persons^ 
individually or genealogically ; the second to persons as 
connected by places ; the last to persons as connected by 
places ai]d farther complicated by the element of time. So 
that if we know the three fundamental or personal forms,, 
the problem is thenceforth resolved ; there will be need- 
but to follow, by a route that must be now famihar, the 
progressive evolution of those forms through space and 
time, in order to designate the special modes and rngredi- 
ent stages of the epic, and not only of the epic but the 
whole poetic art. I am loath, however, to task the pop- 
ular reader with these endless cycles within cycles ; which 
are apt to produce by their number and vastness the ap- 
pearance of abstractness and complexity, though in reality 
they are the very simplest as well as sublimest of concep- 
tions. But my apology must be the constant effort to give^ 
within the compass of a few pages, some decent degree of 
completeness to discussions almost infinite ; and for the 
art of doing so the only model I have ever met with is na- 
ture. Its application in the present instance will combine 
exigencies nearly opposite. For our historical verification 
will be carried back to the highest fountains and at the 
same time be abridged by a summary j)rogramme of the 
entire series, when we have established those seminal forms 
of the primordial or personal stage. 

These gradations of Individuality it is not difficult icy 
determine. They must relate to the dispensers, real or- 
20* 



990 vK^imiss or civtt4tA«o^^. 

no<^u> n.s \vt^U »?* imvve. lUu iho jH>\\tE>4^ lx> i«flu(?MC© this 

p\\>auot> «rtVun\ou» tho powor lo pi^Mmi u^uius^t ori^pel i^ 
«vul \\\^ jM>\vt?v of ^nUiguiing \w ?ih»nng it or of $tH>lhiwg 

\«\^>o»^u>n or «pj>l\u?*«\ Thov \w»v cot^?»oi|^iio\\ilY \\\<* 
{\w\x\%^^ K^( so uu'U\Y 5»i^tH io?* of Ki>\o, which u^i^ht t l<o«ot> 
b^ loriwcd iho MyOK>)o^ic, iho Uo\»io» nud iho Uoiunmic 

I T4» N<>r isi tfe<^ a«ti*c)i»iwx of ihi?^ gnu\aiiiH\ al aU so 
vioVMi a^ iwi^lu W thought > Tho thNi^oont iu l^et is quit« 
<Hi«aW<* a««l \|Miio uorwut I\\um hoaxtnj lv> oarth, Awtl 
tU\s» uoi m<*it*ly lHH\ui$o as ho\\><\4 \vinx> acoouxUe^l still m 
l>^ J<"/»»«\i5\H^s, so w^Muaw U>o is» \>y the uni\ omul sulVi^t^ v4* 
ih^ [Hv«Hi. a son«MhMiiiHiivi«ity h> ovt^ry U>vo^4ck soiu»ett^«*r» 
Nvn^ xt'l is iu as a satyrist «\ighl arguo tKn« ov»r |>riiicipl«?S!, 
tlmt \vho»vas tho gvxls al ti»"st \wix> tlonuM^s aiul theh»vi\H^» 
a SiHi <v|' guai^Viaj* augT»ls, aw«i iho thinl ten« of aU v>ur 
tria^ls is a con>j>o««<! <v|' tho two jMvooiling. why that m>» 
thi»\ii c\HiKl Ih> 4UOIV cx>uoVwsito ihau w^M«au*s cv>ullnnuty 
itt th\s caso. Xo» iho iw^^-tin^ was somolhixig ilt^^per or at 
leasl uu>it» soriows ihau aU this, Tl^o stagws ix>p\xN^^a, in 
\>dlt>r» th«> saYa^x\ tho Ihu Iv^ix^ms* auvl iho sv>cial sU^l^. Now 
the laitx?!' Wiug» tjfcs^HHjiaUy who« voxuig ami simple^ 
ost^ttHHl a W«?^si»ig» au^r w^>u^au Wiiig the ohviovisi 
sou»\^ of itis i>onH?r«atio»u iho sox w^ix> watumlly smij; 
tt» tho syxMbof of its iimwMt^hty* hy thsHt umophisti- 
oaite<i ^>oj>uh\r iiwaitiet which, utukr tho ixhj^^dcal Cyolo* 
felt tho iiulividuat tx> mov^ oi^ Uvt^ hut i\\ the unit of tho 
Stalv oi^ nK^\ Uo«^H> it also is that tho ^hMtio^l ix^ffonora- 
t\xr« vxf svH:iotY» tho u^os««iiahs of tho op|n^ss<:\l uuutituUo» 
hax^s itt o^ooption t\> tho othor gxnis, Kvtt ahvav* In^rw ixf 
human n^othoi"* — iu Kiudiv^tau, iu Voi^a* iu MVxii>>» in 
JTudo^k, Tho com^sjHnKlonoo of tho twv> juvYiovis Kxruis, 
that is to sa>.\ vxf jxv\xtwtiw auvt <xf uiah'gtvaut j^h>\\\?i>h t\> tho 
harlxartau auvl tho sava^x> statx\< is ch\u\ Iu aU thi>^ it i* 
most ourionss^ly as x>^^)l as c*xnclusi\x^ly atto«t\Hl by ti»o ftwel 
(which just iH^nu^ to uto) that among tho ^xooms ascribo«J 
to llosiUl — an J tho4vfvx«\> ^xf tho a^^ in qnostion, — tho 
itto^ oott*i*loraUlo at\^ ontitkdj tho ** ThoogiL>ny»** th© 



MTrilOI.OCiK.'AI, GYCl.K. UHt 

" ft(;ro()^()iiy," hik] llio " r'iilulo^ij.r <,!' i'Vomru <>i llic ino- 
t.ljiiiH ol' llin <l«)rnig(>rlH !" 

Su<:li Ixilug, tlidroflun, j)ilniiliv<;ly iho rcjiuti'd <11hiioii- 
hcirt lil' liiippiiicHii, fiijil HiKJCoHttivcly l.ho lliemcH of entroiity 
«)! (»r jxMHcr, wt) uro MOW to ti'sl llio ICpic I'tiMullH — If) wit, 
tlioMt) HoiitlmonlM e!iil)0(li(5<l in worih — l)y \\ \n\c^i' rc-rer- 
euMi lo tlio Hc.juily locordH wliicli iIjomc iiifuul rigcH could 
li.ivr Icf'l. fo liiMldiy. )<'irh(, in or<l«;r, ol' iIk; ;j;<;ii<-i,j) Iojiuh 
in llin Mylholo^ic. 

§?.'{. I. l\lijf/ioh,i.'/ic ICj>ir.. Ajij)lyiiig, JIM UMii.iI, lo thtj 
jM'om'OhHivo «:(»iihlilul loll oi* tliu Hul>jt;cl. llio nxiorn o(* (mji* 
flircto iniillioiiuilicul roiniuhiH, il. in now iiiiniliiii- tliut the 
lOpic, or trmro proporly Iim iiigr«Mli«jiitH, ijiiiHt hfivo corn- 
iii()M('«;<l ill iMolalc*! Mini hiiof cfliihioiiH to l)i(j ^o(1h, 'j'lio 
oailioHt pooliy would tlioti |»(; liyiiii/H. A<(:ordin;^ly tlxj 
liyiniiH Mtylod Oiplilc, A,'.(:. (no matter l>y wlioni <:oinpoHi;d) 
111(5 iindonl)l(!dly tlio moHt unciont poonm of (Irecco. Tliiu 
in moioovor jirovod by intornal (ividoiu-o from tlicir tlioo- 
l(»gic, <;liara(;tor. With duo timlitional tomicily the rccita- 
lion of tli(iH(3 liymuN w<5nt on to llio luHt in llio colehration 
oi' tlio MyHtorittH ; and willi diui conformity to our tln;oiy, 
lli«'-y vvor(3 diidicalcd (jiiito Nnnutricaliy, that iM to nay (jii© 
lo each of Lho ninltitndinoiiH godn and goddoHHOM ; and ho 
recited in Hohimn He<jij(.'nce, making uji in<l<.'od the wh<de 
certmiony ; or " ihe vvhoiti theology <d'i(JolH," aH it wan (Je- 
nonnced l»y a Falhcji' of the ('hurcli, with ihe very human 
uncoiiHciouHneHH that tlu; lilanicH of \\\h own VAiittil ai(j hut 
<lecayed remnanlH of thin riji(jn«;d rilual of the pagan. Jn 
fact, i( waH, alHo, with the piimilive (JhiiMliaiiH, ihe whole 
or a, principal part of the nervice, logo ihrough the rc'cita- 
tion of a like hymn to C'hriHt: hut hen; the foini muMt 
have paHHed Irom the tyjiic character of our prewent 
Oychi, and accordingly the (JhriHiian hymn waH Hung liv 
Htrophe and unti-htrophe, precisely an inlimt (Jroeco wang 
th(5 " Hong of the goat" to JiacchuH. Itevcjrting to earlier 
timcH, it in also known that the children oi' lOgypt chanl<jd 
" hymnn" through the HtreelH to the Iiull A pin. And amid 
the j)rimevii.l i'ore.stH oi' modern agoH, the wavage lluKiUM 
Hiiid, what ( !hai l(!Voix (^illri, ihcir prayeix in Hong, in hymn. 
Hut wilhoiil. mulliplylng examples, it would, in hIioiI, ho 
I'ouiid I Ik; (MHO with every harhaiiaii jieopN; aiaj ep(j<Ji (jf 



232 VESTIGES OP CIVILIZATION. 

the world. It is well worth adding that dancing, also, 
should have been, in those days, a religious ceremony : 
for as the Hymn is, we see, the primitive poetry of the 
language of Speech, so Dancing is the poetry proper to 
the " language of action." (§61) Accordingly we all re- 
member the dancing before the Ark by the vinous and 
venerable Noah. Also the later exhortation of the Psalm- 
ist " to praise the name of the Lord in the dance." 

2. The last examples conduct us fitly to the ensuing 
stage of the primitive epic ; which should, by theory, be a 
stringing together of the previous hymns into longer narra- 
tives. For to this secondary formation appertain charac- 
teristically all the more ancient portions of that crude mis- 
cellany the Hebrew Bible. Also the riper collections as- 
cribed to Trismagistus, the Egyptian Moses; for though 
these were partly medical and jurisprudential as well as 
theological, yet the latter was inevitably the real character 
of the whole, at a time when man was thought to do all 
things by the direct agency of the gods. It is thus the 
like compositions are conceived in Hindostan to this day ; 
where, I believe, they are also regarded, duly, as the ear- 
liest portions of the literature. It is needless to add the 
well-known fact, which is so ignorant an object of wonder, 
that the composition was in all these cases in verse. 
What is equally to our principles but a good deal less ob- 
served is this, that these epical materials of the secondary 
era consist for the most part of particular examples or 
events, not of individual divinities as in the hymnical epoch; 
and are connected by means of locality, rather than of 
genealogy, parentage being an earlier expedient for uni- 
fying severalty than topography. This drawing out of a 
croivd of gods into a series of actions ascribed to the prin- 
cipal, or what more strictly concerns us, the poetic reflec- 
tion of this progression, had advanced, in some things, in 
the cases mentioned, to even Usages or institutions. But 
it was rounded into system, it seems, in Hindostan alone. 
A striking confirmation truly, that the most jDrimitive na- 
tion of the earth should present us with the purest speci- 
men of the Mythologic epic. 

3. In fact this third and final formation of the primary 
mode of Epic could have scarce been reached in Egypt, 
and thus is not recorded. For, in the first place, the art of 



ilTtHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 2SB 

writing had, both picture and symbolic, become by this 
time unintelligible to the people, and was therefore ut- 
terly unfit for a lengthy popular composition ; and the 
"demotic" or Alphabetic system, on the other hand, 
was still imperfect and moreover appropriated by the 
traders — a crew no less unpoetical than the priests are 
unprogressive. But far beyond this material obstacle 
I regard the psychological one, that their theology was 
still too personal, too concrete, too diverse; wanted a 
unity, a principle of sufficient generality, not only to con- 
nect their national history along the ground of space, 
but besides to convolve it over the plane of time in a cycle 
of self-producing actions. For such a requisite implied 
the dawning consciousness of progression, of development 
which embodies itself in the notion of mutual conflict or 
antagonism. But nothing of this kind was distinctly felt 
by the Egyptian people, whose animal gods had been all 
local, or most of them sovereign in particular cities. Still 
less by the Jews, whose single deity was too manifestly 
no emanation of the national mind, and moreover labour- 
ed under the epical disqualification of omnipotence. 

Had the Hebrew nation been left to develope its own 
material Messiah, and the Egyptian multitude to rise above 
its gross fetichism and reach to even the priestly fables about 
Osiris and Typhon, I doubt not both these countries would 
have wrought their materials of the second formation into 
the personal unity of the mythological epic. In fact, they 
had, we see, advanced, though in dim and different degrees, 
towards that abstract recognition of the two elements of hu- 
man happiness which had elsewhere attained the distinct 
dualism named the Two Principles, and which was precise- 
ly the grand condition required. But the strife of these two 
personified abstractions of Good and Evil had raged; with 
various fortune, from immemorial ages, in ancient India 
alone and its affiliated civilizations. For all these reasons (to 
be proved at large under the proj^er head of Religion) it is 
in Hindoo literature that the epic form should present this 
primitive completeness. Here moreover had the too subsid- 
iary arts of metre and of writing (which were respectively 
deficient in the other cases cited) attained, both — and I 
scarce need add, by correlation with the conception — 
to due development for artistic expression as well as po- 



234 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

pular appreciation. Now, in perfect consonance with 
these various circumstances, positive and negative, the 
principal Indian poem, entitled the Ramayana and found- 
ed duly on the conflict of the Two principles of good and 
evil, the countless contests of Vishnu or the preserver, 
with Siva or the destroyer — this celebrated poem, I say, 
is perhaps the sole specimen, and is certainly the purest 
type, of the Mythological epic. 

§ 74. 1. Heroic Ej^ic. The species termed Heroic had 
of course a similar progression. It commenced, in fact, 
with the elemental, the atomic form named the ode. The 
ode is but the hymn or psalm in the secondary transfor- 
mation ; it celebrated not the gods proper, but heroes or 
social gods, and has a duly larger proportion of the musi- 
cal element. The transition is attested, as usual, in the 
etymology of the word, which still refers to the originally 
sacred signification ; precisely as the correlative rates, 
which meant at first a priest or prophet, came in later 
ages to designate a poet. As to historical testimony, I 
need but mention the effusions called ballads ; in which, 
from the earliest ages down to the present day, have been 
celebrated, in all countries, the popular heroes of all descrip- 
tions and degrees ; even horses, I may add, included (1) 
with more than the usual discrimination. 

2. To this rudimental or Numerical formation of the 
Heroic epic should succeed, we know, an elongation, an ex- 
tension of composition. But this was impossible while 
the subjects, as in the ode or ballad, had been confined to 
the personal attributes of the hero, which stuck about 
him, as it were, in isolated points. The theme, to be 
drawn out, must turn also upon Events ; upon the casual- 
ties that befell him in his progress through localities ; 
in a word, upon his heroic advenfurcs. Quite accordingly, 
the poems of this secondary formation are as universal 
and familiar as the ballads. They were chanted through- 
out Europe during the second barbarism of the middle 
ages, under the well-known appellation of lays. The na- 
tional poem of Germany, entitled the Niebelungen, though 
very pardonably dignified by the Germans into an epic, is 

(1) See Pindar's Odes. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 235 

a cliaracteristic specimen of this description, and so retains^ 
in fact, the title. It is an unjointed succession of diversi- 
fied stories or " adventures," as lliey are termed in express 
conformity to the requisites of the theory. A testimony, 
no less striking, to my general division of the epic is pre- 
sented by the next in magnitude of these Teutonic lays, 
and which bears the name of the " Helden Buch" or the 
Book of Heroes. To this rude epoch of the poetic art be- 
long also the Spanish poems of the Cid. But those of 
Ossian, where the parts or lays are distinguished by the 
name of dhun, are by far, I think, the highest of the class, 
and border, indeed, upon the sublime spirit though not tbe 
composition of the third formation. 

This 'Consummation had reached perfection in Ancient 
Greece alone. But here, too, there must have been, of 
course, a middle or Lay transition, to elaborate, to elongate 
the epical materials, and pass the popular comprehension 
from the mere ode. And such in fact was the precise 
province of the "Rhapsodes;" that is to say, etymologi- 
cally, ode-spmners, or persons who prolonged their poetic 
recitals to unusual lengths. These innovators had been 
thus distinguished, and no doubt, at first, contemptuously, 
from the " Aidoi," the primitive ode-singers, the inspired 
organs of the gods. Does not the Media:ival analogue of 
the " rhapsody," the term lay, imply a similar apposition 
to its clerical predecessors ? Assuredly these are curious 
coincidences with the theory ; quite as close as if devised 
for the purpose. But the third and last of our mathema- 
tical forms is still awaiting a realization ; the elongation of 
the rhapsodies should be found convolved into Figure. 
This final requisite is quite accordingly fulfilled, as usual, to 
the very name, in the subsequent race of bards called the 
'^cyclic poets ;" meaning those whose rhapsodies were put 
together so as to constitute a cycle; to describe a progres- 
sive action ; of which the cycle was, we know, the simplest 
notion, in epic poetry as well as astronomy. Now if to 
this series of confirmations, both formal and philological, 
we add the equally known tradition, that places Homer at 
the same time among the rhapsodists and the cyclic poets, 
nay back among the hymn-makers, and at the other end 
makes him author of the model epic of the Iliad, that is 
to say a mythical impersonation of the entire series — if all 



236 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

this, I say, be well compared it will be hard to find, in his- 
tory, a cousoiiance more characteristic with an abstract or 
scientific law. 

§ 74. That such have been in fact, the career and com- 
position of the Iliad is manifest, beside tradition, from va- 
rious points of internal evidence. The seams of the lay 
or rhapsody stand often apart and scvn>etiines ill sorted, 
betraying the patchwork, even through the varnish of its 
critical compilers, l^ut the most conclusive and fundamen- 
tal indication to this effect has been overlooked, I believe, 
throughout the long controversy concerning the Homeric 
poems. I have repeatedly shown that all productions arc 
in a general sense a growth ; the mental no less than the 
physical, an epic quite the same as the human animal who 
comes to relish it, or the social animal of whose happy 
childhood it is the nursery emanation. But it was also 
shown by the foregoing induction, that the epic had its spe- 
cific source in the first stage in the hymn, and in the se- 
cond in the ode ; and further that the ode in turn had its 
seminal origin in the hymn. But the hymn we defined an 
invocation of the gods. Now here is the natural reason of 
the finnous epical exordium which has been repeated in 
all later epics after the example of the Iliad, and (as usual 
with those who are content to repeat) without very well 
knowing why. In the great original the invocation was 
but a remnant of the radical form, the germ still adhe- 
ring quite spontaneously at the root end, and duly shrunk- 
en to the disproportion of an acorn to its future oak. This 
phenomenon will recur in the analogous forms of other arts, 
where its certainty can be made palpable to the five senses. 
Meanwhile the classical reader will be content with an- 
other distinction, which just occurs to memory, and must 
be the more decisive as made by the poem itself in question. 

In the opening invocation of the Iliad, as is known, the 
terms are: lisids, dea. By the verb will here be recog- 
nized the ** Aidoi" above mentioned as the chanters, primi- 
tively of hymns, derivatively of odes. So far then the con- 
firmation goes on, so to speak, arse e?ido; the very expres- 
sion is significant of the historical ante-position. But there 
are invocations in other parts of the poem ; are they too, 
expressed in the same sanctified formula ? By no means. 
I remember on one occasion (perhaps that of introducing 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 237 

the famous catalogue of the Greek Armada,) the words are : 
Eoniiit vvif fiov, Modauc. Here tlie expression is widely 
difTererit, but no less strikingly characteristic. The request 
is no longer to .sing oracularly, but now to relate tcstbno- 
nlally. And what marks more broadly the lapse of ages 
that must have passed between the two forms, is that the 
poet thinks it necessary in the latter to assign a rca.son for 
belief in the virtue of the invocation : 

"^inq Oeai eore, rc^qaaxe le, I'crre re nuvia. (1] 

Now here is disclosed infallibly an audience that have 
learned to doubt, an age, therefore, long posterior to the 
Hymning ages of simple faith, when the use of an argu- 
ment could no more have occurred to a Greek poet than to a 
Jewish prophet; in short the epoch of the Rhapsode, of 
the Lay. And so the second phrase, while it evinces by 
this contrast with the former, the alleged presence of 
the primitive formation in the Iliad, is itself a similar rem- 
nant of the secondary stage, in fact the original invocation 
of the rhapsody left unexpunged ; and, in this way, is more- 
over a double and direct evidence, at once of the succes- 
sive and slow production of the epic generally, and of 
the specific and threefold ingredients apportioned to the 
Heroic form. 

I am aware that the critics, with their usual profundity, 
have detected in these reiterated invocations of Homer, an 
expedient to augment the pace or revive the spirits of the 
jaded muse. And this felicitous conceit they have erected 
into an epic rule, which the author of Hudibras, with a 
philosophic instinct beyond the country and age of JJacon, 
does not fail to follow with sarcastic submission. They 
have done likewise by the initial invocation, with the same 
discernment; and the consequence is that the preceptor 
example has been blindly observed, often to a x>itch of 
caricature, by what will be presently distinguished as the 
artificial race of epists. Even the learned and judicious 
Virgil is amenable to the reproach. Through ignorance 
of the chronological distinction just established, he applies 
the equivalent of utide to the avowed person of the poet 
(2); not discerning its characteristical appropriateness to the 

(1) For, being divinities, you were present, and must know the 
whole transaction. 

(2) Arma virumrj[ue cano, &c. 

21 



'J8S vkj^tujks ok iM\ ri.i/ATrox', 

divinilY. Much iiioio [nopor both in Uuiiis ;uul uso, i'lom 
llu> thoologioal alVmilv ot' subjoor, is llu> invocation of the 
vii>orously-eiiulito Miltt>n. luit tho infant form iv^ nogUn't- 
ctl tiUally bv tho spontaneous genius of the griwter Dante, 
the tvpe-epist, the personal Homer, of tlie Metapliysieal or 
C^hristian Cycle. With respect to the term ctino - of which 
I lie imitating Ivoman makes a use that wi>ulil have been 
impious in his primeval prototype — 1 trust the reailer has 
r.ot faileil to remark the co-onlinate gleam of light which it 
o|H^ns along this whole historical genesis, by its ilerivative 
signiticalion (as in enc/zr/wAnent, inr<////'ali»>n. t\:c.\ at the 
san\e time of priestly oracle and of profane song. 

Tn short tliere is not, 1 aver, a principle k^^ those laid 
down respecting the epic, from Aristotle to the latest oi' 
his echoes, that would not equally attest tuir theory. Not 
only the ancient rules bear all iniconsciously this testimo- 
ny, but even the modern dispute concerning the nature 
itself o^ the subject, familiarly known as the Homeric 
controversy. Without pretending to be minutely read in 
the literature oi' this famous discussion, I dare nilirm that 
the foregoing paragra[ihs jilace the question in a new 
light. And if it be the true one, it seems u clear disproof 
of the individuality o( authorship ; if not, possibly, in the 
matter of mere compilation, at least as to the original com- 
pi^sition of the materials. In truth the latter is never the 
case with the jnimitive, the genuine, the natural lOpic. 
The true procedure, had wo eyes to see, has been half 
revealed in our own day by the Celtic epic oi'Ossian. pro- 
duced precisely in this fashion. For with all deference to 
Dr. Johnson (who knew as much of mythic ])hilosophy 
as a cow does about the calculus), the proximate materials 
y)( the Ivhapsode or Lay formation do exist, in the elemen- 
tal state, among the peasantry at least of Ireland, and so 
no doubt among their colonial brethren o{' the iScotch 
Highlands. Nay more, these lengthier pieces are I think 
habitually introduced by an invocation or other formula in a 
ililVerent strain iiom the body o( the poem, and which is 
doubtless a remnant, as above explained, of the primordial 
or ode formation. All this may have been much nuitila- 
ted, much interpolated, no doubt ; and probably has been, 
seeing that the object and the age i>f the compiUn- had a 
liner sympathy with the Hscal than the philosophical. But 



MYTIIOLOOICAL CYVLK. 239 

the orif^HKils vvoulfJ not, Jiuvc tlio Iokh oxiMtCfl on thih account ; 
nor alsfi f'oj- not, b(;ing viriillK; ibrougli a tlirfjfjfoK] liiycr of 
ol)Hfacl(;H to p(;rHfinH utlorly untaught to penetrate tljrougli 
eit}jer ; J mean ffie r>h,Htacles of* non-existence In a written 
or proflucJihle form, of crunpo.sition in a flead and obscure 
idiom, and of tr?jditif;n among a Hequehtered nnd Kemi- 
})arf><'iroiiH poj>iil?ition. Jie that as it rnay, liad tliiH compi- 
atir>n taken [»l;je(5 at a Htnge of Hociety analogous to tijyt 
of tfie IfonK^ric c(dlection, wIjo can doubt that Mr;]/herHon, 
too, rniglit liave been a myth. But liaving been executed 
at a period of* (-riticiHrn — and of* criticism without philoso- 
pliy — lie is at once exalted into a poet and denounced as 
an impoKtor, And ho, perliaps, accepting, as no bad ex- 
diange for jdorlding prr»bity, tlic imputation of unindicta- 
ble f*orgery joined to profitable fame, the Bcheming Scot 
would affect to equivocate about the production of fiis 
alleged documents, or be hhrewdly hIow to bring the issue 
to otfjer peremptory proofs. Other instances of tlie col- 
lection, no less historical tbougb much earlier, might be 
adfluced f*rom the romantic epics of llie middle ages. But 
my purpf>He was not to meddle with the Ifomtrric question, 
now swamped, like so many others, in the- morass of Gor- 
man metajihysics. I only wished it noted that the ex- 
istence, tlio issues, and the very age r>f the agitation 
joined their tcHtimony with that of all the rest, to the fact 
of formative progression, from corjcrete to abstract, arjd by 
tlie three mathematical laws, in even the liighest model of 
tljo highest Epical variety I was exemplifying. 



§ 75. Social Epic. I am now to j)oint oiit briefly the 
same all pervading principles in the third and remaining 
species, termed the Social. This conciseness will be in- 
dulgf'd me if it only be remembered that the order de- 
tailed in the preceding series is here repeated of course, 
in stiict form, but upon the above assigned modlficfition of 
principle. This transition of basisis from Jleroesto Women. 
It was diily anrjounced, we may observe, in the finfjl stages 
of tlje Jferoic epic, while there was nothirjg of the kind in 
tlio ^Jlieological. The wife of Menc^laus gave occasion to 
the Iliad; the daughter of Count .Julian to the poem of the 
Cid ; and so, in short, wherever the J>allyds, protracted 
into Lays, have also passed into the Cyclical stage; that is 



240 VESTIGES O^F CIVILrZATIOW. 

to say, a state of accretion around a catastrophe for com- 
mon centre. Here we discern the emerc^ence of the sex 
from savage slavery. So far, however, woman's advance- 
ment goes but to the quality of mere mischief-maker : she 
furnishes a pietext for the Heroes to display their valour. 
Whereas the object of the Social epic is to display the vir- 
tues of woman. But she must have the virtues first ; for the 
poets of those simple ages are not yet liars by profession, nor 
the women idiots by perversion. And how much the reform 
is necessary may be guessed from the domestic fate of nearly 
the whole host of Greek husbands on their return from the 
siege of Troy. Nor is the thing at all peculiar to the 
Grecian matrons at such an epoch; although an English 
writer (Knox) in his straits to find some evidence of the 
Hellenic origin of his race, has the hardihood to resort to 
this liberal trait of the Greek women as being, he thinks, 
unequivocally Saxon. It is through a like ignorance, that 
female laxity is a common incident of barbarism, that the 
Turks and other Orientals are charged with cruelty towards 
the sex : as if there could have been a general usage 
without its sufficient reason ! To bring about the reign 
of the family virtues would be therefore the main tend- 
ency of the two preparatory formations of this species of 
epic. 

And the means would, for the reasons intimated, be 
rather satire than flattery. In fact, the former is the 
better test of consideration, if not even respect. Which is 
the reason, perhaps, why the harshest satirists of women 
are said to like them best. It is also the Biblical senti- 
ment, that the Lord loveth whom he chastizeth. But the 
deeper source of the severity in the poetic epoch before 
us, would be the advancing social instincts of mankind, 
and the consequent importance attached to the person and 
the purity of woman. And that she should thence be long 
an object of invective instead of applause, as would be 
thought from the fact of making her the theme of epic song 
— this, I say, is one of the most striking verifications of the 
theory, if only the deduction can be ratified from history. 

§ 76. But that it can is at once proclaimed by an or- 
der of facts esteemed so singular, as to have shaken the 
authenticity of more than one production of primitive an- 
tiquity. I have already mentioned the Hesiodic poems as 



MYTnOLOGICAL CYCLE. 241 

coiitaiiiing the earliest tract on women ; wLerc, liowever, 
they are viewed Kubsidiarily to their derni-divine ofiJspring. 
In another and larger production, attributed to the same 
source, they are made repeatedly the subject of sarcasm 
and invective ; so much so that, from thiscncumstance, to- 
gether with the frequent use of proverVjs and parables, the 
{ioem in question (the ** Works and Days ") has been 
thought by critics to be spurious, as out of tone with the 
simple age they supposed, and to be a collection from 
diflerent epochs as well as authors. The fact o^ collection, is, 
of course, too apposite to my purpose to dispute it. ]3ut the 
reason is the very reverse of the trulh. There is no discrep- 
ancy of age between the particulars noted ; there is on the 
contrary a proper and profound congruity. Their essential 
character and common purpose is didactic, instructive, mo- 
ralizing. And they are not only thus quite consonant or co- 
etaneous with each other, but also harmonize with the body 
of the work; which is all devoted (as the title intimates) to 
the cultivation of agricultural pursuits, the inculcation of the 
domestic virtues, in fine the foundation of the arts of peace 
and society, now succeeding to heroism and barbarity. 

From a widely different source I select another sam- 
ple, where the trait in question is still more signal and 
has occasioned similar doubts. It is more familiar that 
the Biblical composition called " Ecclesiastes," contains 
whole pages of the most truculent satire extant upon the 
sex. From its sententious form it is classed, moreover, with 
the book of Proverbs, and from its practical sagacity styled 
the book of Wisdom. But for both these qualities it is ex- 
communicated from the body of the Jewish Scriptures, as 
" apochryphal," that is to say rational, or attainted with comr 
mon sense. The discordance in this respect I do not dare, of 
course, to dispute. Besides, it is quite to my argument that 
these materials of the third epic should be found posterior to 
those of the first, as above referred to in the Bible. But 
what I submit is that they are so in only the normal degree 
delineated ,and that the difference appears so great, not from 
a lapse of time but a change of theme. Who could think, 
in future ages, that the hymns of John Wesley, and the 
Poor Richard of Benjamin Franklin had been productions 
of the same day ] By the way, the mnemonic verses of 
Franklin were quite in the manner of the epoch in view, 
21* 



242 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

that is to say so far as a skeptic can imitate a prophet, ant! 
recurred duly in the social infancy of our own, as of all 
other nations. Even as we also had our Heroic epic, in 
the mortal Columbia d. 

2. Of this primary or Numeral formation of the third 
epic it is needless to multiply examples. It constitutes a 
large proportion of the vaunted Hindoo literature, and also 
of the Arabic and Chinese. It was distinguished by the 
Greeks under the collective name of " Gnomic ;" which 
meant poetry drawn from hioicledge, inslend of inspiration. 
The Hcsiodic poems are a compilation made up in large 
part of this description ; and the same may be affirmed, 
with all respect, of the Hebrew Scriptures. In both these 
venerable repositories we should therefore rationally pro- 
ceed to look for the second or elongated formation also ; 
the objects or events concatenated by simple catalogue or 
story. And accordingly, true in the very title as well as 
theme to this deduction, the Hesiodic poem on Woman 
bears in fact the name of" Catalogue." Here, by the by, 
is a suggestive comment upon the so-called " catalogue of 
the Ships " in the Iliad ; a hint how the latter two had 
been, no doubt, originally a separate piece, as is, we saw, 
attested positively by the presence of the invocation. But 
to return to Hesiod for another instance or two of the 
class in question, I must name from memory, though there 
doubtless are others more apposite, the fable of Prome- 
theus, in the Works and Days ; and, also, that theological 
topic of all nations, the story of the Degeneration of the 
human race. In the Bible, I can stop to cite but a single 
specimen, the Book of Job ; where a woman and a wife is 
made the spring of the Social Lay. 

3, We are now to seek the " Cyclical " and final 
formation. For this we must at once resort to Greece j 
where alone even its simpler analogue of the Heroic series 
attained perfection. And here, accordingly, the rival 
Odyssey looms majestically on the scene, like the moon in 
twilight fulness, all soft and social and benign, to sup- 
plant the bloody glare and barbaric grandeur of the 
Iliad. The Odyssey, whose only topics are the arts and 
sports of peace ; whose heroine is made the deathless 
proverb of conjugual fidelity ; whose muse is invoked to 
sing, not the anger of a savage chieftain, nor the vengeance 



MrrnoLOGicAL cvcle. 24S 

of a divinity, or the revenge of a priest (which, weknow, has 
always been the same thing), but the man of wisdom, of 
eloquence, of peace, of patriotism ; the man who has wit- 
nessed the manners of various nations and compared their 
institutions ; or to use the profound and all embracing 
expression of the original, the man who has seen and 
suffered. 

§ 76. But what is, in this instance, the term of invocation, 
to which I have attributed such emphatic significance'? 
Is it the same as, or similar to, the wording in the Iliad ? 
"Were this the case I should have no doubt that it was an 
ignorant interpolation ; tliat is to say, that the compilation 
or composition of the Odyssey had been so long posterior to 
the epoch of the Iliad as that the author had, hke Virgil, lost 
the import of the hymnal form. But no, the phrase is pre- 
eminently apposite to our principle. It runs (as will be re- 
membered) : ylvdqa ^oi Ef&ne, Movga, &c. Now the word 
en-EPE contains, we see, the generic name of the epic art, 
and for the normal reason that the nature of the latter was 
more fully develojDcd in the third stage. The meaning is 
conformable, and only asks, to narrate epically. The power 
invoked is also, it is perhaps worth remarking, addressed, 
in this case, by the bare title of muse ; not goddess, as 
in the Iliad, nor with the addition of her Olympian resi- 
dence, as in the second instance from the same source, and 
which told, we found, a due decline of religious reverence 
or credulity. But now the style is become coldly officiaL 

The fact of this progression is further witnessed by 
the words of Virgil; who, while copying both the Greek 
exemplars, has made the Odyssey his main model, and 
this by instinct of the closer sympathy or proximity of 
epoch. For while this greatest of the race of imitators 
mistakes the formula of the older poem so far as to name 
the sacred function as a simple attribute of his natural 
person, yet he seizes so well the spirit of the invocative 
phrase of the Odyssey, as to promote its alleged tendency 
to the very verge of philosophy. In the terms : Musa, 
miJii causas MEMORA, we see the pompous office 
of the muse brought nearly back to its primitive source in 
the simple faculty or process of memory. It may be add- 
ed that the ^nead throughout, but especially the foremost 
moiety, presents in the general tenor, expressly social, of 



244 VESTIGES OF CITILIZATIOK. 

the plan, as well as the prominent and respectable part of 
woman in the action, a conclusive proof of the character 
nd classification assigned the Greek pattern, by our prin- 
ciple of development applied to epic poetry. 

§ 77. Of this spontaneous classification it is an obvious 
corollary that the two great Homeric poems belong not 
merely to different authors, but to distant epochs of civiliza- 
tion, if not of chronology. Besides, with space and the 
originals to refer to, I would undertake to demonstrate 
the fact from internal evidence. Not however by the vain 
pedantry of philological antinomianism,but by application 
of our philosophical scale of graduation. Thus the Iliad 
would appear the expression of a people essentially barba- 
rian ; for it sings but of passions and battles. The Odys- 
sey, on the contrary, describes the peaceful manners and 
political customary of cities or states; it represents a peo- 
ple settling down from the passions and pursuits of violence 
into the civil interests and domestic affections of social life, 
of which the family is the necessary foundation. According- 
ly its heroine, the proverbially " chaste" Penelope remains 
a model of those affections, even in an absence of her hus- 
band, and an absence of twenty years, and beset moreover 
throughout this long period by a throng of pressing sui- 
tors ; a sorites of temptation so sensibly imagined, to the 
end of colouring the ideal wife of the age, that it would 
almost task the conjugual fortitude of our own enlightened 
and Christian days. On the other hand the heroine (if she 
might be so considered) of the Iliad is a wanton who has 
changed her second or third husband for a lover, with no- 
thing to redeem her frailties but the endowment of physical 
beauty, and who after having set two hosts of barbarians 
together by the ears, scarce appears throughout the poem 
but to flit a moment across the stage. Same contrast in the 
male principals. For what is the " fleet-footed " Achilles 
but the hero of muscular force % A man so undeveloped 
mentally as to repudiate on the field of battle the authority 
of his chief upon a merely personal ground, and refuse to 
fight for the ahstraction of country, while he rushes to 
avenge, with the brutality of a tiger, the fair fall of an indi- 
vidual friend. The " wily " hero of the Odyssey is on 
the contrary a patriot — nor a patriot of the mercenary, 
mouthing, modern stamp — but one who labours through a 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 245 

life of perils to regain his little crag-crouched Ithaca, and 
sacrifices for that labour not only the luxuries of a court but 
the still more tempting boon of immortality in the arms of 
a goddess. Here is plainly the nascent spirit that after con- 
quered at Thermopylas by having died " in obedience to 
the laws ;" and Ulysses is accordingly the personation of 
wisdom, or rather (to be more true to the conceptions 
of the time) the hero of cunnings which is the wisdom of 
the barbarian. Thus we see arise unsought the verification 
of our third axiom, respecting the secular succession of the 
Conceptional principles of Force and Fraud. This broad 
distinction would, I doubt not, be found to hold throughout 
the details, and would yield a new and the true theory of 
both the poems. Take for instance the most pojDularly 
known episode of the Odyssey, the so-called allegory, but 
properly Lay or 5<?cmZ Rhapsode of Polyphemus; of which 
the m'^rring or moral is no other than the triumph of cun- 
ning over blind force. It reminds one of the politicians 
and the people in a democracy. 

This allusion to the episode as appertaining to the lay 
formation recalls a proof which above escaped me, with 
doubtless others of equal pertinence. It is that the epi- 
sodes, so frequent in both the Greek epics, and followed 
servilely as ornaments by the whole line of their successors, 
and admired rapturously by the critics as profoundly-devi- 
sed excursions, made aside from the regular route, for the 
relaxation of the muse ; or as others will rather have it, for 
the recreation of the reader — that these, I say, are in re- 
ality, those raw remains of the linear formations, whose 
angularities the concrete intellect of the " cyclic " ages 
was still too feeble to bend into uniformity with the rest. It 
is thus too that, in the world of fashion, the disguises of 
the cripple often pass into the embellishments of the ape. 
Another specimen of this critical philosophy, no less in the 
vein of the grocer's wife, is the exaltation into wondrous 
art of the rule of " beginning in the middle." As if it 
were possible that the genuine, the spontaneous epic should 
begin elsewhere ! As if the formation of the crystal, and 
the growth of the vegetable did not exhibit the same deep 
art of rudely grouping around a middle, before nature is able 
to weave herself into a tissue of series, much less to wind 
these series into the organized unity of system ! As if the iii' 



240 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

stinct of mental debility would not enforce the simple fact, 
that a mass of materials, of whatever description, may be 
compassed much more easily by any concentric^ than even 
the least consectctive, arrangement ! As if the confusion of 
the ignorant did not arise I'rom this epic principle, of com- 
mencing with their story in the middle, supposing you in 
full possession of all their interests and antecedents ; which, 
if asked or indulged, they will after tell you in the right 
artistic mode of espiode ! Oh, Butler, thou most inspired 
of the epic generation, how thou had'st reason, though 
half unconsciously, in ridiculing the learned pedants, 

Who beauties view 

In Homer, Homer never knew. 

But to return to the later of the two great poems that 
bear this name ; we are now warranted I think in rr^tii^g 
it as the concluded form of the Social species of Epic ; 
even as the Iliad was the co-ordinate but more concrete 
model of the Heroic. Both, in their respective ages, seem 
to have carried to its highest perfection this infant stage of 
the poetical art ; that is, the stage appropriate to the 
Mytholygical Cycle. But the imitation of those mystic 
models produced, in even ancient Greece, a brood of 
epics of a very different character; composed, all of them, 
unquestionably by individuals, and labouring, more or less 
according to the divergence of the situation, to supply the 
lack of nature by art. Yet even these would be found 
pervaded by the same inevitable law of progression, from 
the concrete to the abstract, from the physical to the men- 
tal or social. And as it will also serve to graduate their 
relative place upon the general scale, I shall close the epic 
branch, with the crucial test of this spurious class, how- 
ever superfluous to the completeness of our historical 
induction. 

§ 78. Artificial Ejncs. Principal among this imita- 
tive description of epics are the great astronomical poems 
of ancient Greece, on the Labours of Hercules, the Trav- 
els of Bacchus, and the Voyage of Jason in quest of the 
Golden Fleece. These Heroes are proved, all three, to 
have been "at bottom no other than the Sun j which as the 



MYTliOLOGICAL CYCLE. 247 

great animating power of nature was the paramount ob- 
ject of worship throughout the physical or Mythological 
Cycle. The various legends told of it in this character 
were, with the advent of 7iWWrt;iDivinification, transferred 
collectively to the credit of some traditional chieftain, 
king, or pirate ; who, to smooth the transition to godhead, 
was reputed of solar progeny, in like manner (for exam- 
ple) as an Inca might be sincerely sung of by a Peruvian 
poet. This in truth is a re-appearance of the " Cyclic " 
collegation ; with however the essential difference, that 
the secondary materials, instead of behig jumbled or joint- 
ed together, are now completely fused, and thus lose, in 
the elaboration, the native spirit and physiognomy which no 
advantages of arrangement can either reconcile or remedy. 
But what we are here to note especially is the strict con- 
formity of these several epics, however artificial their 
composition and unconscious their authors, to the two ax- 
ioms relative to the fact and the principles of the progres- 
sion, now that the forms seem abundantly elucidated. 
The progression is, we remember from Concrete to Ab- 
stract in conception ; from Force to Reason in principle ; 
or in the terms of our general subject, from the savage 
state to the civilized. 

In fact, the series of epics just named — for a series they 
regularly form — might be viewed as representatives of 
Humanity or civilization in the successive dawnings of its 
three industrial departments. The observation may be 
submitted to a double and decisive test, in both the charac- 
ter of the hero and the object of the action. The most 
ancient Of these poems undoubtedly is that concerning the 
Twelve labours of Hercules, or the passage of the sun 
through the Twelve signs of the zodiac : it celebrates the 
slaying of serpents and other ferocious monsters, the pun- 
ishing of robbers, the draining of marshes, &c. ; all achieve- 
ments that seem to symbolize those infant circumstances of 
society which, in a country where the facts are now wit- 
nessed in process, we designate as the pioneer state. Her- 
cules, accordingly, suits the exigence as well as the epoch. 
He is the traditional proverb of muscular force, the hero- 
divinity, then, of the physical Cycle. To the same effect 
it may be worth noting that he was the patron god of the 
whole Pelasgic or Heracleidan race ; to whom modern re- 



248 VESTIGES OF ClVILlZAllOK. 

searches are concurring to point as not merely llie original 
civilizers of Europe, but us also the great, transition-layer, 
so to speak, ol'civilizatiitu itself, from the pastoral or the 
theocratic inertness of the East, to the agricultural, the re- 
publican, and hero-worshipping expansions of its western 
and European development. 

The second epic, so much later that the author, Nonnus, 
is known historically, sings of Hacthus as the planter and 
propagator of the vine. Now, this shrub was througliout 
the ancient world, the most cons})icnous staple of agricul- 
ture, in its primary, its simplest, its frugiferous ibrm. It 
therefore normally became the type oi' all n'i^rtah/c pro- 
ductimi. It also implied the preceding clearage of the soil, 
and a certain degree of art in cultivation, jilantation, pru- 
iiage, &c. The hero, too, is a being of benevolence ami 
jollity ; capable of inspiring mankind with the social alfec- 
tions, of dispelling the taciturn stolidity of the savage state. 

Of the third and still later poem, the A rgofi a if t es oi' Ap- 
polonius, we know precisely both the author and date. 
The subject is the naval expedition of Jason in pursuit of 
the Golden Fleece. Does not the mere announcement of 
the object, as well as the means of conveyance, reveal signi- 
ticantly the nascent spirit of maritime commerce? This 
interpretation, with both the preceding, might be illustrat- 
ed to any extent, had I space to parlicularize, or the origi- 
nals to consult. For instance Jason, I recollect, is made 
to present to the LemniaJi queen a mantle of magnificent 
workmanship, which had been given him by Minerva ; 
that is to say, the goddess of the industrial arts. May not 
this symbolize the tralKc of certain articles of textile fabric, 
known to have been largely manufactured by the Clreek 
women, for the gold of the more luxurious and opulent 
Colchians ? For the latter were in those days a much 
more wealthy and polished people than the former, who 
were doubtless their colonial descendants. In referring 
the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey to difierent 
epochs (§ 77), it was intimated that the dilfcrence may have 
been one of civilization rather than chronology — a point 
which I forebore to canvass as being indifferent to the main 
purpose. The allusion was, however, to the probability that 
the Iliad is the more energetic because native effusion of the 
metropolitan Ionia, and the Odyssey, the emigrant, the 



MVTflOLOfilC'AL CVCLK. 240 

oxotic arul induKlriouHly cjAouhi] emanation of the IblancJw 
anfl poninsiila of Grooce prop(;r, of wliich accorrlingly it 
^loHcriljcs tlif; topoj^rapliy with Hiich graphical exactnciK. 
The rclativo posilir^n rniglit havo };ocn that of Now and 
Old iOngland a century back. Tt was in fad this bhowy civ- 
ilization tljat made ColchoM, tljo older lonin, ho re[Mitod a 
conntry of rnagiciariH, by the western barbarians ; even a» 
tlie ignorant of the middle agoH regardcl the learned a« 
wizards. It was quite in character, then, that the BucceKS 
of Jason Hhoiild have been Baid to be obtained tlirough the 
magic Hkill of the Colchian princess. And it was no JehS in 
keeping with tlic theory that this third grade of the artifi- 
cial epic hhould be made to turn, like its alleged model, on 
the pivot of Woman. 

I Jut be the poetic incidents what they may, tlio pro- 
gress of society, from tlie ^^oncrete to the ab.-itr?jct, oi- from 
the simpler produr;tions of the earth, to the modifica- 
tions oi' ihom in ffjrm and the exchange a»jd exjKHtatioii 
of the surplus of both for gain ; all this, I say, is here 
reflected, in the plastic medium of fiction, with more 
fidelity than in the most philosopliical of modern treatises 
on political economy. It may be objected that my prin- 
ciples imply an interval of ages [x^tween the several 
.steps ; and yet that the epic triad in question are obsei-\'ed 
to contain allusirms to the herrKJS and actions of each other. 
The explanation was abfjve suggested, namely, that the 
hero, in all three, was in reality the same ; and that the 
materials, having lain afloat on the common of tradition, 
were appropriated irrespectively by every new corner; 
who w<juld be solicitous only to vaiy the principal action, 
in re-casting all tlie rest to suit the spirit f»f his (-/wn epoch. 
So ihitt tlnj answer is supplied, spontaneously, by our 
explanation of the epic. 

This explanation has been prolonged (if th<i pun be 
pardoned) for the sake of brevity. In the art of Poetry, 
as in all the rest, the primary triad of the progression 
presents, we know, an exact type of the two succeeding 
complications. So that when the former is fully unfolded, 
as 1 trust it has been in the case of the Epic, and the 
latter are already familiar from a t}jousand applications, 
the present extension of these to the Lyric and Dramatic 
forms may be commended to the reader's confidence 
22 



250 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

or committed to bis diligence. It may be well, bow- 
eyer, to add, upon eacb, a few summary indications, 
suggestive of tbe main direction and distribution. 

§ 79. Tbe Lyric form, wbicb comes second in order, 
has been described (§ 70) as taking its origin from the 
sentiments and emotions excited by human actions; as 
labouring to express the impression which they left upon 
the poet's Passions ; even as the Epic expressed, at the 
earlier end, the impression upon the Senses, and the Dra- 
ma, on the other hand, the impression upon the Reason. 

1. It is obvious, then, from the mere nature of this 
emotional and subjective source, that the lyrical order, too 
must have commenced with the Numeral stage : so much 
so, indeed, that the question would rather appear to be, as 
to how the passions could come to express themselves in 
other than fitful effusions. The typic character of such 
effusions will be also clear from principle. Happiness, I 
have said, was the object of all poetry, and is to be influ- 
enced at both its opposite poles, of pleasure and pain. 
The rudimental form of the lyric species should therefore 
exhibit a like division, and corresponding to the two great 
interests on which human happiness must mainly turn, more 
especially in the adolescence of the race as of the individ- 
ual. These are evidently the positive consideration of 
enjoying Life, and the negutiix consideration of losing 
it, or Death. And accordingly the first formation of this 
Sentimental order of poetry is distinguishable into opposite 
kinds, the one devoted to funereal mourning, the other to 
convivial hilarity. The former were called by the Ancient 
Romans nenice ; which Niebuhr, if I remember, jumbles 
with the elements of the Epic. Among the Celtic Irish 
they are still remembered, and perhaps recited, by the 
name of Kheeniah ; a term, by the by, remarkably analo- 
o-ous to the Latin, and like this an illustration of the polaric 
neo-ation, above conjectured, in the letter n. In short 
these popular songs of Pain may be found in all primitive 
countries, which have passed from the epic and animal 
exteriority of the senses, to the subjective epoch of reflec- 
tion. The songs of Pleasure rise much later ; for mourn- 
ing alas ! is nature, and merriment is art. Accordingly this 
class obtained, in Greece, the name of scolia, which signi- 



MrXHOLOGICAL CVCLE. 251 

fied irregularities, deviations, in manner or spirit, from the 
half-hymnical solemnity of the orthodox and previout 
forms. Historically, too, the posteriority is attested, in 
attributing this second and so more decidedly lyrical step, 
to a source comparatively so late as Terpander : who it is 
well to note is also said to have invented the barbiton, 
added some strings to the lyre, and improved the modes of 
reciting the Homeric poems — a triad of traditions preg- 
nant with confirmation of all the premises. The succes- 
sion in short was necessary ; seeing that man, the species 
as well as individual, is made, I repeat, to weep by instinct, 
while he smiles but by imitation. In other words, he feels 
the privative before the positive of happiness : which is 
also the reason why, as we shall after have occasion to see, 
he deprecates the devil, for ages, before he imprecates the 
deity. 

If we farther remember that these lyric elements 
would present a range of modification corresponding to 
the principal means supposed to be applicable to the ex- 
treme ends — such as towards the earlier, the means of war, 
to prevent oppression, and later, that of love to iiromote 
enjoyment — it will be easy to reduce to principle even the 
Greek abundance of this formation. For instance, there 
will appear, in the one hand, the " war-songs " of Tirtaeus, 
which inflamed so memorably the austere Spartans to bat- 
tle, and on the other the erotic line of Alcmaeon, Alcseus, 
Sappho, etc. The whole formation I think attained the 
utmost limits of its perfection, in the graceful and sprightly 
verses of Anacreon ; wherein the mirthful and the melan- 
choly, the gay and the philosophical are refined to the high 
purity at which they enter into combination, and produce 
that magic blending of apparent contrarieties but (as now 
explained by the foregoing remarks), those really nalura! 
affinities which alone might prove the Celtic kindred of 
the Ionian bard with his sole successors, I mean Burns, 
and more especially B^ranger. 

2, Of the next and elongated stage it may, for reasons 
above suggested, be thought more difficult to furnish the 
historical verification. But this description is duly more 
evident, and in all the corresponding modes. It is no 
other than the well-known Elegy. The elegy should 
commence, like its prototype, with the mournful in object 



252 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

aiul the military in means. Ami acconliiigly the former 
is the literal meaning of the name ; a derivation present- 
ing a singnlar conformity with our distinction. This ex- 
tended and more elaborate form of the Lyrical species of 
poetry had its perfection if not its origin in Greece ; 
whence it passed, in after ages, with the rest of the arts, to 
Rome. Its inventor was said, I think, to be Oallinus, 
But the earlrest of its best models seems to have been 
Mymnermns, the poet, accordingly, of tender melancholy, 
of lamentation over the brevity of life, the transiency of 
youth, the miseries of mankind. Of the erotic elongatior^, 
on the other hand, the extreme type in Greece was per- 
haps Callimachus ; who was followed up, variously, by the 
Roman Propertius, Tibullus and OviiL I would add, that 
both one and the other of these lyrical formations have 
also — as ought to be expected from their highly primitive 
simplicity — reuciied u certain degree of de\eioj)ment in 
Hindostan and Persia. Haiiz makes no despicable ana- 
logue to Anaereon. But what is special to the purpose is, 
that all their poetry of this description, and that is to say, 
by far the largest portion of the whole, is observed to ex- 
hibit, to the excess of monotony (no doubt, because of its 
lower art), the fundamental characteristics assigned the 
Lyrical department, of turning upon the two great in- 
terests or events of Death and Life. And again this 
succession of Events to Persons, as main basis, will be 
remembered as another aspect of the conformity. 

3, But can this basis have been extended, furthermore, 
to institutions in the })lane of time, m\(\ figured into system, 
as required in the ihiid formation ? The absence of this 
*' Cyclical" and final stage of complication would, in fact, 
be no real objection in a subject like the Lyrical, where but 
little connection or continuity is aftbrded by the materials, 
and which, accordingly, has not been thought to have ad- 
vanced beyond the ode or epode. So that its testimony to 
the theory would be augmented in proportion, should it be 
shown to have, nt)t merely compassed the elongation of the 
elegy, but even approximated to the length of the Epic. 
In fact, the elegy has been sometimes carried to very 
nearly this extent. This was, however, in its days of de- 
cline and artifiality, and particularly, perhaps, by the ele- 
gant erudition of Callimachus. But there were, also, 



MVTHOLOOICAL CYCLE. 253 

"cyclical" or syntagmatic lyrics, no doubt. The best 
example that now occurs to me is the " Cassandra" of 
Lycophron ; a composition, like its author, half pedantic, 
half prophetic, and combinin^^ the tediousncss of the epic 
with the darkness of the dithyrambic. These traits would 
all, as well as the length of the poem and the date of the 
writer, who belonged, like Callimachus, to the Alexandrian 
school of grammarians, concur to enhance the confirmation, 
were there but space to point their bearings. I may also 
leave the reader to recognize how duly the Lyric species 
comes, like the Epic, to proceed in the final stage, as the 
theory had prescribed, upon Woman (Cassandra being the 
notable daughter of Priam) ; and this the more expressly 
as well as effectually, in proportion as its origin had been 
later, and its spirit by consequence more social. 

§ 80. Nor is it only the personage, the sul>ject, the 
composition that thus attest the applicability of the theory 
to ancient poetry ; the mechanical structure of the very 
verse could not escape the same great law. In the ])rima- 
ry formations of the Epic the versification crawled pro- 
gressively through a syllabic consonance or contraposition 
which Hebrew scholars term "parallelism," — their book of 
books, the J5ible, being mostly written in this infant metre. 
It thus attained at last to ranging linearly as many as six 
feet, and the hej^ameter became the standard measure of 
the mature Epic. The Lyric epoch must introduce a new 
order; and this order must commence, as usual, with ihe 
elements, in the feet ; proceeding outwards to the line, and 
then the distich or other strophe. And again this metrical 
deviation would naturally first appear in the earliest stage 
of the primary Lyrical formation, which was the war song. 

Quite accordingly Tirtaeus, whom we saw the type in 
this description, was the inventor (jf the measure styled 
Messenian, from the subject of his songs, which related 
mostly to the Messenian wars. The metre is pro])erly 
named the anapa3Stic, and consists in an alternation of the 
syllabic or numerical order among \\\e feet. The alterna- 
tion, in the next step, of these /;«//'- measures with the hex- 
ameter, would pass, of course, to the proportional order of 
feet in alternate lines; and this reform would commence, 
duly, in the second stage of Lyric poetry. But this mea- 
sure, termed pentameter from its curtailment to five 
22* 



254 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION-. 

feet, has, in fact, been consecrated to the elegy, as th e 
hexameter was to the epic; so much so that the poetical 
and prosodial forms were both ascribed, as usual in such 
conjunctures, to the same author. 

Not merely is the consonance thus complete in the 
features specified ; but also our long acquantance, the three 
mathematical forms, present themselves quite spontaneous- 
ly even here, as already recognized in the two foremost of 
the triad. The third or circuitous form ends in well-writ- 
ten prose ; which, paradoxical though it seem, is both the 
ultimate consequence and utmost consummation of metri- 
cal perfection. But to such end the Lyrical epoch could 
contribute but a bare beginning. Its critical service in this 
particular was negative, analytic; its destination to break 
up gradually the stiff and stately hexameter into elemental 
freedom and flexibility. This was finally accomjilished in 
the metre called Iambic, and of which the true principle 
would farther prove to be no other than polarity. But I 
must make an end of this endless tissue, by returning forth- 
with to the lyrical samples of the third formation, in which 
the iambus, if I am right, should have made its regular 
appearance. In fact the instance already referred to, the 
poem of Lycophron, is in this measure. But a far more 
apt example, which escaped me at that moment, is Archi- 
locus, the very inventor of the metre in question, and the 
conformity of whose writings to the position thus assigned 
them, in the Lyrical analogue of the final form of the epic, 
may be seen significantly in the surname accorded him by 
his countrymen, of being the Homer of the lyrical muse ! 
Harmonies such as these can nee! no comment; their 
existence is test enough of their infallibility. 

I will therefore close with one remark upon another 
aspect of this strange conformity. It is a well-known con- 
sequence of the theory, that where the poetry of passion 
waned,'there also should appear the dawning of the poetry 
of judgment, of censure, of satire ; this was above exempli- 
fied in the passage of the epic, from the Heroic, to the So- 
cial or final form. Now, history tells us, of the same Ar- 
chilocus, that he was the earliest satirist in Greek litera- 
ture ; and so he was no doubt, in the literature of the world. 
He was probably the first of mankind to develope that spleen 
of the intellect, which was also the grand distinction of By- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 255 

roll's genius, in our own day. And as the latter was 
deemed to have lashed the world to avenge the accident 
of having been born club-footed, so the satirical vein of 
the Greek was accounted for in a similar fashion, by the 
accident of his low birth on the side of an enslaved mother. 
But these are the notions of vulgar minds about men they 
cannot comprehend. Men of this cast can have no quarrel 
with nature, whom they love as true and great ; their con- 
tention is with man whom they detest as false, or despise 
as frivolous. But in avowing such sentiments (and how 
conceal them ?) they become objects of pei'secution ; and 
the persecution provokes the satire, provided the power 
exists. This natural action and re-action was probably 
the real source of what his victims taught posterity to call 
Xhefury of Archilocus ; and as it was deemed by even Ho- 
race (1), who hov/ever, though himself a satirist, was too 
Epicurean, and perhaps loo shallow to sympathi2e with a 
sincere intellect. Byron too was voted "mad," and by two 
opposite classes v/ho seem to embrace a large majority of 
most communities, to wit, the stupid, who V/ere angiy that 
he did not see them as they saw themselves, and the hypo- 
crilical, who were angry that he saw them, as it were, with 
their own eyes. Both these parlies, who are always on the 
best terms with each other, who indeed seem made for 
each other's accommodation, would, to dispense them- 
selves from a resentment they felt impotent to execute, re- 
sort to decrying the satirist as plainly mad, and all for 
vengeance of his personal grievances. No, vengeance is 
a low motive, and never inspired a great thought, or 
achieved a great end. And even pride, though it be a high 
one, yet while elevating the spirit, is apt to bedizzen and 
so to falsify the intellect. The sentiment should be one 
which enables genius to look down, on the one hand, from 
the throne of nature upon its own relative insignificance, 
and from the latter point, on the other hand, upon the 
mass of its species below. This was probably the ration- 
alistic position that made one of the greatest of the ancient, 
as it certainly has made the first perhaps of modern, j^oets. 
It is the titanic inspiration of disdain. 

The conclusion is, that Archilocus was in the primi- 

(1) Archilocurri proprio rabies armavit ianibo. 



266 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

live, what Byron has been in the moral cycle — the herald 
of the rational era ; which both announced in the poet's 
manner, ihvongh Jl'e ing , through discontent, through de- 
nunciation ; not like tiie philosopher, through s cingj 
through remonstrance, through demojistration. And this 
new epoch brought of course a suitable modification of an- 
cient poetry, which could no longer be content with merely 
recounting what had been done, nor with describing what 
had been felt inconsequence; but could now essay the 
combination of both these classes of events, into one sys- 
tematic action or organization. This, by means of the con- 
ception of their mutual operation in reproducing one 
another progressively ; and consequently in the manner, not 
of concentration, or elongation, but of (more or less fan- 
tastical) causation; not by aggregation from without, but 
by evolution from within. The art would here, we see, 
attain the locomotive freedom of the animate artist ; and 
for which the Iambus had just been furnished as the fit, 
the fleet expiession. 

The various conditions thus recited as deductive re- 
quisites of the theory, concur in constituting the distinctive 
characters, and the very title of the Diama. So that the 
main princi[)le of the application being thus, it seems, al- 
ready proved, and besides the drama being more familiar 
to general readers than its predecessors, 1 may keep in 
this case my resolution, of restricting the exposition to 
a few suggestive indications, respecting the darker stages 
which led tlie art to the state definctl. 

§ 81. The Drama, of which the name denotes action, 
is conversant with events and institutions as they pass in 
time. And as this was the most abstract, the most difficult 
mode of exhibiting them, the drama was necessarily the 
latest of the poetic developments. It was therefore desig- 
nated, as, by excellence a representation, to distinguish 
it from the anterior forms of narration and description — I 
need not cite the facts that it arose the latest of all in 
Greece. That it reached a degree of maturity in no 
other country of the ancient world ; not in India, what- 
ever may be pretended to the contrary ; not even in Rome 
herself, who in this art as in all others, did but trans- 
late the Greeks. That in modern Europe, in fine, its re- 
appearance in a few of the more civilized nations, has 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 25? 

been exactly in the same order of literary succession, and 
its progress proportional to the degree of civilization. 
How in fact could it be otherwise, seeing that in song 
as well as science, every later stage of the progression 
is a reduplication of all the former, and these of course 
so many conditions precedent to its existence. So, then, 
that the drama should be found to involve both the Lyric 
and Epic elements ; and what is more, to take them up in 
the historic order of their rise, and take them in in the pro- 
portions of their relative predominance. 

Accordingly, history in this case, too, bears out the 
principles precisely. The earliest rudiments of the dra- 
ma in Greece are known to have been a hymn to Apollo, 
and a dance ; the latter (as I have explained it) a supple- 
mentary hymn in the Language of action. But these are 
literally the two constituents of the first formation of the 
Epic ! And if the fitness should seem too nice to relate 
to the dance in the primitive sense, I beg to say that the 
proof is patent, in its being the fountain of an institution 
one of the most important on the ancient stage, and of 
which the explanation has been a problem agitated through- 
out all the subsequent ages, for want of course, of recur- 
ring to the true but too simple source. The institution is 
the famous Chorus; a name which implies, as usual, the 
real origin of the thing. But the subject is also no less 
conformable in nature. For the oflSce of the chorus to- 
wards the actors, in the ancient drama, was precisely that 
of the language of Action, at a prior epoch, towards the 
language of Speech. This proposition contains material 
for one of the most curious dissertations on the history as 
well of man as of art. But nothing of this extent being 
here possible, I leave the point to this plain comparison 
with a matter which has already been sufficiently explained 
(§61), and pass to a few historical examples of the genesis. 

§ 82. Originally, the dance or " chorus" was performed 
by the whole people, strung together in the market-place 
or other open ground. It was next arranged into a sort 
of military evolutions : and later, came a separation of the 
performers into spectators and trained dancers ; the latter 
of whom, by their mimetic representations, together with 
the hymn and its musical accompaniments, made up at 
this early epoch, the aggregate exhibition. For a corn- 



25 S VKSTIGKS OK CIVILIZATION. 

pniatively modern example of this infant state of the Dra- 
ma, the reader may consult Clavigeri> on the '* great dan- 
ces" t^f the Mexicans. This case will also supply a com- 
ment on the philosophy, and therefore the facts, of those 
historiairs who continue to talk of the ** Mexican drama," 
of tragedies and even comedies as ** regular" as the Greek : 
whereas the truth is manifest, and is betrayed indeed by 
their own unconscious pages, that those barbarian butfoon- 
eries had not yet attained to mounting even that gt)-cai t of 
the drama, the show-cart oi^ Thespis. The l^rilish parade 
about the Hindoo drama is far less preposterous than this. 
For 'hough the art, in this case, be many ages in advance 
of its ct^ntlition in ^Mexico, yet there is no pretension, I be- 
lieve tliat, IIind(^o literature contains a trace in the line of 
comedy. And this absence is by so much the belter test 
of discriminatit)n, as the fact is deemed by those who re- 
port it to be anomalous, if not preposterous. It is, howe- 
ver, a quite regular consequence of the jninciple above 
related, and hitherto exemplitied in all the j^receding forms 
of poetry, namely, that, of all contrivances reganling hap- 
piness, those that seek it by soothing pain, must long pre- 
cede those that solicit pleasure ; that in the leslhetic arts, 
the mirthful nmst be posterior to the mournful ; and among 
these, that in the Drama, where the E[nc sjnrit must fust 
]>redominate, the earlier fi>rm is the tragic, sublime or sa- 
cred, but idwnys serious; whereas comedy, on the contra- 
ry, turns chietly on the ridiculous, is social, satirical, 
philosophical. 

§ 83 But to return to its Greek infancy, which we just 
left labouring to organize itself, quite accordingly, upon the 
Epic basis of space. The next advance was the due ac- 
cession ot^ the second or Lyric ingredient, which made a 
commencement of turning the action intotheplano of time. 
The form, too, of this innovation was no less consonant. 
It was no longer a hymn, but an ode, and was addressed 
to the mirthful Bacchus, and composed moreover in the 
deuKH-ratic metre, called dithyranibic ; by which was sig- 
pitied the la«t excess ol' that analytic spirit of the Lyric 
ft)rm, which we saw destined to decompose the old Epical 
hexameter, and thus prepare the language li>r the pliant 
purpose of prose. The concurrence of all these particulars 
>viil) our |niiiciple, is close and dear. N<^'i' h'ss sigtnticaut 



-MYlllOI.OGICAr- CYCLE. 259 

is ihc Irarliliori tliat the irjv^intor ofllifj (]Illjyrarnhij« was alno 
iho author of trago^ly in llio lyrical hlaj/c. To ihin huccecrl- 
ed, for the convcuicncc rif chanting the lengthier orle, a hec- 
ofjfJ fjivihion of* the chorus, into Htn^jihe and antintrophe. 
The result of wliich, in turn, wjis a soit of dialogue in reci- 
tative. Arjd thi.i again — with nf> more forettight of the 
jirogreHfiion it w.ih efi«,'ctirjg than had any of the preceding 
advarjr:e.s — j^re-^ents t.\n; entrance oi' the art upon the pr<j- 
f^eily dramatic ground of action : for the dialogue bupplied 
the rf-ar/ion irjdihjic-nhaljie to *e//'-progreHhion. 

This progrehhion Htill went on, then, but in a manner 
Ijecome hereto*; complex for both my lemainirjg Hpace and 
unrefreshrjd memory to follow. I will merely add that the 
chor us underwent a third divihiorr, into ch^T'/ginud cxarc/ii, 
between whom the dialogue dropped thecharrtand asriumed 
at laHt a spoken character. This gradual passage to de- 
clamation, from the lyric province of the chorus, gave ori- 
gin again to the ckorcuica. And from this the leading be- 
cause latest branch sprung the proper dramatis person;!; ; 
who gradually gained predominance over- the chorus on 
the aricient stage, and have entirely superseded it on the 
modern. And this, by I he operation of that univer.sal law 
of progression through wliich the larjguage of actif>n has 
Ijeen supplanted, even ;is a rhetorical auxiliary, by the lo- 
gical maturity of the language of speech. The final stage 
of the above curious but characteristic develojjmerit (almost 
as long as a Homeric genesis), has the condition in which 
th(; drama was found by the great ^schylus ; who with hi« 
equally illustrious successf)rs, will serve to sum up and 
supplement this slight induction of the dramatic art, in 
the Mythological Cycle. 

For in date, in succession, in suViject, in style, in sliort 
in the whole character of the works, and even the number 
of the authors, the Greek remains of the tragic drama, in 
the well-marked featiires of its fullest maturity, present a 
concurrence truly singular with the fbregoirjg theory of 
the poetic art. I say the number of the authors; for even 
this was not acciderrfal. If less than three, the cycle of 
the art had been imperfect; if more, the artists' rrames had 
not all become immortal. They have done so but in con- 
sequence of representing the three great elements which 
are duly irrvolved in the dramatic form, as the fiiral and 



260 VK8TIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

figured stage of Poetry. AccorcUngly we find the same 
in tlie three ^reat dramatists of the French stage, Cor- 
neille, Racine, and Voltaire ; between whom and their 
Greek prototypes the respective resemblance is not less 
striking, in all or most the other characters assigned. Thus 
then ^T^schylus is epical, and in the first or theologic phase : 
his personages are mostly gods, his machinery is miracle, 
his scenery is nature, his spring of action is fate, his whole 
economy is objective, and his style remains scarce broken 
to the nimble grace of the iambus. Sopliocles, on the 
other hand, re[)rcsents the Heroic stage in subject, and the 
Lyrical in style. His scenery is more artificial and his 
plots more skilfully complicate ; an advance attested, also, 
by his addition of a third speaker to the simple dialogue 
of his predecessor ; even as the latter had added the 
second to the bare monologue of Tlicspis. His re- 
sources too are subjective, are drawn from human senti- 
ments. But they arc still traditional, like those of ^i^schylus; 
not rational, not evolved. This fully dramatic character- 
istic waits the philosophy of Euripides, who is thus the 
consummation of tho triad. We may now understand 
why the first of judges, even Aristotle, pronounced the 
latter *' the most tragic (that is to say dramatic) of the tra- 
gedians." xllso, why at the same time he incurred the 
nickname of " woman-hater," from the special prominence 
he was the first to give to women on the stage and his 
proneness to treat them satirically — just the features pre- 
dicted from principle (§ 75), and exemplified already in 
both the Epic and Lyric forms at the like stage. (1) We 
may also comprehend why the earliest comic genius was 
cotemporai*y with the latest tragic, Aristophanes with Eu- 
ripides 5 though the order is not so strict in the French 
analogue of Moliore. How many more things, hitherto 
buried in either mystery or medley, may now be plain 
upon the subject of Poetry in general, I must leave the 
reader to consider until resuming it in the next Cycle. 



(1) Euripides soeins a sample of the paradox above sufi:gcsted, that 
the detractors of women are their best admirers at heart. '* Yes 
(said his great rival Sopliocles) yes, Euripides detests women in hie 
writings, but he likes them every where else. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 261 



GLYPHIC, PLASTIC, PAINTI:N^G. 

§ 84. I must, for brevity, take together the entire 
group of the arts of Impression. The few remarks which 
can be spared to each would not warrant the form of a 
separate section, until we reach their Generic summary in 
Sculpture. 

The first, which I name Glyphic, is now familiarly 
called engravingy a term equally expressive in the strict 
and primitive sense ; but it having passed to denote the 
modern complication of the process with Painting, I 
have been obliged to recur for a purer designation to the 
Greek. Here the word expresses simply the act of 
scooping oi' hollowing cut, and technically the art of doing 
so for the purposes of indication. 

The indication by impression, like its senior of expres- 
sion (which it came to supplement, in turn, as Speech 
had done before for gesture)^ was first applied, of course, 
to objects too remote in distance of space or time. The 
earliest means were then ^full image of the object. But 
when the human mind had made some progress in ab- 
stracting qualities from their substances, it would be requi- 
site to lEiark the former apart and individually ; and for 
this the obvious method was to make no more of the 
" graven image" than the feature most distinctive of the 
quality designed. After, according as the like qualities 
arranged themselves into Relation, their graven signs 
must also sink into subordination to a single type ; and this 
must end, of course, with leaving the type-signs, in the last 
analysis, as few in number as the fundamental relations or 
laws of nature. It is equally plain that, from this position 
of complete comprehensiveness, they would embrace, and 
thus be adequate to the abstract signification of all the 
qualities and objects in the universe ; needing addition- 
ally but a specific and an individual sign to each, for the 
purposes of concrete determination. So far the results of 
our law of progression in the Glyphic art are quite de- 
monstrable. But, as the law was n* less operative in the 
analogous art of Speech, which in fact had led the way at 
the same time over the same phenomena, it is equally ne- 
23 



2C2 VKSTIGKS OF CIVILIZATION'. 

cessary that the vocal signs must have reached the saiiio 
generic goal ; that the vocabulary, progressively compli- 
cated as conception went on developing, must come at 
last, to analyze itself into the same number ot* type-sounds 
(with their respective pair of accessories) as there are 
uhimate relations to bo signified. Anil then as, gradually, 
the signs of both dsscrljitions attained this position, where 
they must meet by an infallible convergency, their iden- 
tity of import made a coalition necessary. So that, thence- 
forth the graving art, instead of elaborating, as before, the 
figure of either particular parts or the whole object, might 
indicate them inliuitely better and more brieily by uuMcly 
delineating the type-symbols whoso homophonous sounds 
composed the name ; in other words, by still imaging its 
2)hon€tic features or elements. 

§ So. Tlie reader will scarce conceive, I fear, that in 
the compass of this short deduction there lies unveiled the 
entire art and mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Yet, 
were there but a dozen pages for comparison and criti- 
cism, the fact could be made evident to the plainest under- 
standing. However, this being wanting, I will merely cite 
the leading traits of this famous system as transmitted us 
by history. It is known to have pr^^sented three forms, 
successive in origin, ascendant, and decline, and charac- 
terized by their ditVerent modes of indication. Of these, 
. the first drew the entire image, and was termed the Picto- 
rial hieroglyphic ; the second, which gave but the ontline, 
and this })rogressively more partial, is nauied the Symboli- 
cal hieroglypiiic ; the third and last, in which all resem- 
blance to the thing itself had been forgotten, and which 
turned upon a resemblance of the name, is called variously 
the Phonetic, the demotic, the alphabetic hieroglyphic. It 
must be noted, however, respecting the geueric name of 
Jucroglyphic, that it becomes incongruous in the final 
stage, and is appropriate in the first alone ; meaning, as it 
does, the theological or infant form of the system. 

Nor was this triple division of the Olyphic art, any 
more than the art itself (as had long been supposed, ab- 
surdly) at all peculiar to the Egyptians. What alone was 
particular to this easels the conjunction of all three — an 
obvious consequence of the peculiar longevity of that 
primitive nation. But in all the countries of the earth 
that have yet attained to the art of writing, the methods 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 2C3 

all are found reducible to tlie three Egyptian forms, more 
or less pure accordirig to tlie circumstance of undcvolop- 
mont or dorivation, TJius the Mexicans, the social parallel 
of Egypt in the days of the pyramids, present the system 
in the full and feeble integrity of picture. The Chinese, 
on the other hand, and it is said from the earliest times, 
exhibit a like puiity of the symbolic form (an infyllible 
proof, if true, of their derivative civilizntion, and the re- 
mark would apply alike to even the Hindoos). In fine, 
the populations of Europe, which aie known histoiically 
to be all derivative — derivative in several degrees — pos- 
sess, in more or less complete analysis, the final, the pho- 
netic system. So necessarily consecutive and character- 
istically comprehensive, indeed, are these three progressive 
forms of the Glyphical or graphical art, that Europeans 
who attempt to make alphabets for our own and other 
savage tribes, fail entirely where the people have not 
made some progress in the picture form, and even then 
can analyze those idioms no farther than the symbolic 
stage. And if they generally approximate these pre- 
tended alphabets so near to the number of the real, as from 
one hundred down to fifty, which is the grade of the Hin- 
doos ; while the Chinese quota still amounts to over two 
hundred, it is because the syllabic sounds of the savage, 
like those of the civilized, are proportional to the ideas 
demanding expression ; are like every other act of his, in 
exact ratio to his undevelopment. So that we have here 
another test of the profundity of those philologers who, to 
show the mystical perfection of our American Indian idi- 
oms, allege the fact that a few of the riper (where there 
had been a beginning of the pictured glyphicl) were 
found susceptible of analysis into some sixty to eighty 
signs. 

But what is of more importance to have tested, is the 
fundamental conformity of all the historical varieties of the 
art of writing, throughout the ancient or modern world, 
with the strict inferences of our theory applied to the art 
of Glyphic. And how consummate the correspondence, 
in all, along to the very terms, I leave the reader to medi- 
tate in detail. For farther assurance, however, I would 
remind him that the three terms of the historical senes 
should, like their alleged law be homologous, also, to the 



264 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

three nijitliematical forms. But quite palpably, we have 
the Numeral, in the isolate and individual Picture ; the 
Extended, in the Symbolic, which was named, expressly, 
the " li/icar " glyphic ; in fine, the Figured, the circulating, 
the synthetic form, in the juxtaposition of alphabetic letters 
in the Joiyfi at ion of the verbal sign ! 

§ 80. This final term suggests another explanation, 
more startling still perhajis, though resulting incidentally 
from the same simple deduction. Among all the gram- 
mars and philologies, philosophical or otherwise, that have 
ever attempted a rationale of the alphabetic elements, is 
there one that has succeeded in giving a tolerable reason 
why the number should be so small or so large ; why it 
should be so uniform, in all idioms, within assignable 
limits ; or why the range of variation should gravitate to- 
wards two points, and these be the numbers eighteen and 
twenty-seven ? I believe the explanation of any one, and 
certainly of all four of these familiar facts, would be looked 
for throughout all literatures in varn. But all are plain 
from our description of the phonetic stage of Glyphic. 
There, it appeared that Speech, like glyphic, must, in 
course of the mental march which put the tongue alike 
with the graving tool or pen in action, have at last been 
generalized into just as many type-sounds — determining 
the same number of type-signs — as there are fundamental 
uniformities among all phenomena. And, farther, that these 
generic forms should be each accompanied with two aux- 
iliaries, specific and difierential, for definition and designa- 
tion. Now, it is demonstrated (ch. 2.) that the uniformities 
or laws of nature, up at least to Ethological man (beyond 
which conception, and consequently language, have not 
yet, we saw, advanced), are reducible to the small number 
of nine. So that the nine type-signs with their pairs of 
accessories, would make exactly twenty- seven, and the 
accessories alone be just eighteen ! And the latter, from 
their concrete nature and practical destination, would in 
feet be found for a long time alone; being developed slowly, 
one by one, from the Symbolical formation, and all, of 
course, for ages in advance of the abstract types. And 
hence, again, what has been called the short alphabet would 
be peculiar to the ruder dialects ; while the rest would 
range, along to the normal number, in proportion to na- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 265 

tional development. Thus, accordingly, the French alone 
has reached exactly this number; by including of course 
the diphthongal and nasal vowels, which are merely the 
remnant of a still imperfect distribution. While the He- 
brew, perhaps the lowest of all the phonetic languages, 
remained below even the full complement of the acces- 
sories. And here also we have spontaneously unveiled 
another mystery, the " vowel pointing " of the latter idiom, 
or its destitution of the vowel glyphics ; a monstrosity 
which had been long esteemed the sure credential of its 
heavenly origin, but which alas, is a sure proof, we see, 
that it has been " of the earth, earthy." For the fact is 
that the barbarian speakers had not developed the abstract 
types. 

I need not now add that these nine vocal genera are 
the Vowels of the grammarians, (1) and their eighteen 
adjuncts, the Con-sonnnts, as the term declares expressly. 
And as to the actual variations from either number in the 
riper alphabets they are only wrapped, by amalgamation 
or repetition, in the " double " forms, which are seen to rise 
towards the ends of both the series, and which are but rude 
efforts to seize the ill-developed utterance of the voice, in 
these extreme stages of its progressive complication. For 
the vocal organ, it ought to be unnecessary for me to spe- 
cify, must undergo, in the act of uttering the full vowel 
scale of nine terms, the identical sum and series of ascend- 
ing configurations, which we saw govern the composition 
of created nature. Nor is this in reality more wonderful 
(aside from human self-conceit) than the parallel tissues of 
the spider and the hexagonal cells of the bee. Not to goad 
too far this tender part, however, I forbear to cumu- 
late the explication by showing the concurrence of the 
alphabetic letters with the laws of vital jjolarity, and that 
the vowels are in fact the open or free poles of the Ex- 
pressing energy. The case, as it stands, will be admitted 
to be a most singular confirmation of the universal unity 
of the theory. And then I am anxious not to alarm the 
race of grammarians and philologers ; who, if I mistake 
not, may make good account of the pregnant contents 
of the present section, and to whom I therefore beg 

(1) Is the octave analysis of the musical gammut in reality com- 
plete, and for the human voice ? 
23* 



260 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

to dedicate it (having styled them sometimes uncivilly) 
by way of atonement for the past, and also license for 
the future. 

§ 87. But in all three of those Glyphic forms — Picto- 
rial, Symbolical, Alphabetic — there was obviously another 
and adventitious ingredient, to give them efficacy or facil- 
ity as graphical systems. The engraving supplied the 
figured surface ; but it would always be indistinct without 
the contrast of colour. The natural necessity and the pri- 
mary remedy are well illustrated by a remnant of both, 
which survives in India to this day. When a learned Brah- 
man is in the lields or woods, and the spirit moves him to 
pen a prayer to his god or a stanza to his mistress, he plucka 
the broad and thick leaves of a certain plant, and with his 
iron style engraves the letters upon the surface. In this 
state, they are much as if written with invisible ink; so that 
to give them legibility the writer sands them with a dark 
dust, which is pulverized between the fingers to make it 
more adhesive ; and as the letters or glyphics are, of course, 
sacred, to say nothing of the prayer, the staining must be 
the product djwstcn'ori of his sacred cow. — Now here I re- 
peat is a simple, but thus the more significant, image of the 
same expedient which at a later stage appears in paint, on 
the glyphics of Egypt, and which ended at last in our mo- 
dern ink, applied to a plain and colourless surface. And the 
return towards the surface, was a merely instinctive result 
of the superior manageability of the element of color above 
the action of graving ; which latter was in consequence 
allowed to grow gradually shallower, until it finally disap- 
peared from the art. A characteristic exploit of that sub- 
lime intellect of man, which thus could crawl upon the 
crutch of colour, and in course of thousands of generations, 
fiom the channel of a hieroglyphic to the surface ! that 
is to say, to the conception that colour could represent bo- 
dies without a height or a hollow beneath it ! 

§ 88. Fhstic. While the Glyphical figures were still 
clumsily deep, however, and especially in the pictorial 
stage, it would be observed (perhaps in the application of 
some rude description of paint) that a liquid or plastic sub- 
stance, left to solidify in the engraving, would reproduce an 
exact image of the glyphic but in relief. Now here was a 
quite new idea. It furnished in fact the germ of a new art ; 



WYTIIOLOGICAL CYCLE. 267 

preci-sely as we saw the crystalline corpuscle, turned out- 
side in to shape a vegetable cell, supply the basis of a new 
organization (§22). Only the metamorphosis was in this case 
the reverse, was a turning of the figures inside out. And 
this distinction is but duly characteristic of the course of art ; 
which consists, whether in the useful or liberal, in rolling 
backward, as it were, the serial processes or laws of nature 
upon each other, and tlius obtaining a proportionate quan- 
tity of resistance, of force, of effect. The art in question 
derives its name, we see, from the sort of sulxstance that 
first suggested it. J5ut this communicative application of 
it was not made for centuries after ; man could then as 
soon have leaped into one of the fixed stars. It was 
attained but through the two coarser and consecutive 
divisions, now familiarly distingui-Jjed as Pottery and 
Casting. 

Pottery— or as it was called by the ancients, more com- 
prehensively, "fictile" ware, because shaped of course at 
first with the mere hands — was the earlier because the more 
obvious and urgently useful. For the whole procedure 
being a result of mere moveable instinct, it must pass 
through the necessary to reach the ornamental. But a 
pot and a pitcher were among the earliest wants of man ; 
the one to cook his meat, the other to hold his drirjk. These 
were therefore the first productions of the Plastic art. 
They were fashioned, no doubt, by a sort of sculpture, a 
scooping out, with the hands, and from a lump of clammy 
clay; a substance seen habitually to retain, like the en- 
graving (made itself, of course, originally upon a similarly 
soft ground, (1) ) any figured impression, when fully dried 
in the sun. The utensil would next be smoothed both in- 
side and out with the same natural trowel, natural as the 
tail of the beaver; and then would be applied all over 
what happily served for a coating of varnish, but what 
was only intended for the habitual colouring. For, how 
could the barbarian, who saw nothing in nature without 
colour, feel his own productions finished in its absence, its 
abstraction. Impossible. 

It is needless to suggest the obvious accidents by 

(1) Soe tlic remnant of this in the hieroglyphics tliat cover uselessly 
the Bunbaked bricks in the ruins of primeval Egypt and Assyria. 



268 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

which the pot and pitcher, in process of use, would be led 
to reproduce the phenomena of the glyphic ; but how up- 
on a greatly enlarged scale. They would be found able to 
impart their interior form to the exterior of a solid body. 
Here arose the notion of a model or mould ; that is a means 
of shaping fluid substances to any desirable configuration. 
It is worth remarking, as a specimen of the general com- 
plication, that whereas heat was the agent to solidify in the 
preceding stage, it is now employed on the contrary to li- 
quify ; and the solidification, by a further inversion, is per- 
formed by cooling. The result was the subordinate art of 
Casting. And I may add, lest the law be forgotten when 
I do not keep repeating it, that the progress was here 
strictly regulated by our three mathematical formulse. 
The first and accidental product was evidently isolate or 
Numeral. The second stage of casting was mainly em- 
ployed upon what would now be termed kitchen utensils 
— the stomach being the root of all things in man, and in- 
deed of man himself: and these being of course, all linear 
or lamellated solids, represent the elongations of Extension. 
While the spherical, the Figured stage attained its fulness 
in the human statue. It is needles to add the paint still 
clings to the bronze statue, the same as to the clay pitcher. 
It would be no less so to dwell long upon the emphatic 
confirmation which is furnished respecting all this, by all his- 
torv. The American reader has heard many a descant upon 
the*^ singular proficiency of the aboriginal Mexicans in the 
sister arts in question : the abundance and finish of their fic- 
tile utensils and ware; the delicacy and design of their 
gold and silver trinketry ; even the correct execution of 
birds and other animals, also casts of the human head from 
the same metals, as well as carvings in ivory, and the pre- 
cious stones. And in fact specimens of most of them which 
had been sent to Europe at the time, are said to have been 
beyoiid the skill of the first mechanicians of that day, and 
are, to this, among the curiosities of the museums. Yet 
the people who wrought them had reached but a merely 
rudimental development in architecture, not quite so high 
indeed as the rudest extant form in ancient Egypt; as 
could be inferred, in fact, from the Mexican position, as 
above remarked, in the art of Glyphic : it is equally of 
course, and known historically, that they had produced 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 269 

nothing to merit the name of a statue in stone ; -while they 
had cast ones, that is sculptured statues, statues produced 
from sculptured or scooped models, without number. In 
Egypt, also (just alluded to) the rockbuilt tombs, which 
are contemporary with the earliest pyramids and conse- 
quently anterior to the great ages of her architecture, 
abound in earthen utensils and ornaments of the like de- 
scription and execution. But ancient Etruria in particu- 
lar has astonished the world in this line : not only by the su- 
perior finish of the celebrated vases, which are now yearly 
disinterred from their repository of ages, in all their fresh- 
ness of even colouring, but above all, their metallic articles 
of furniture, cooking implements, trays, candlesticks, and 
even chandeliers not excelled in art, it is said (poetically), 
at this day : and in the spherical stage of statuary, not 
merely the human figure simply, but even equestrian sta- 
tues were common in bronze. 

This people had also, we are told, like both the former, 
and in short all coeval nations, attained to a like proficien- 
cy in all the anterior arts of our scale. They were expert 
musicians, had as many poets as we boast ourselves, and 
brought the art (as we have not yet done) to the third or 
Dramatic stage ; so effectually so that Etruria is thought 
to share the honour with later Greece, of having given a 
theatre to the Roman robber and exterminator of both. 
This " Etruscan drama," however, belonged no doubt, to 
the same category as the Mexican, of which we saw above 
the real character ; only advanced perhaps somewhat closer 
to the Hindoo grade. So far for the arts of the first series ; 
and in those of the second or Sculptural class (including 
Glyphic, but in a half alphabetic stage) we see the feats of 
those simple nations to have been really so considerable 
as to continue to this day the standing wonder of antiqua- 
rian ignorance. But the Etrurians (and here is the won- 
der) who so excelled in the latter arts had never made a 
statue in stone ; nor made a distinct commencement in 
architecture. Their highest effort in this line is admitted 
to have been the " tomb of Porsenna" ; and this we shall 
presently find to hold but an infant position in this highest 
art. This fact of all history and puzzle of all philosophy 
will find, I submit, like so many others, its spontaneous 
solution by a simple comparison with my iEsthetical scale. 



270 VKSTIGKS OF CIVILIZATION. 

§ 80. Init, US 1 have intiinatoil, the most important fea- 
ture of Plastic still remains; when its C()mj>lication with 
Glyph ic should have renehed backwards fiom the coarser 
forms to ihe original and less apparent application to ex- 
pression. Men had now come, by means of the fictile and 
casting arts conjointly, to produce in pliable, soluble and 
even malleable substances, most sorts of solid configura- 
tions. But to produce, by the same processes, the linear 
figures of letters, will be found, if wo reflect upon it, a 
very different achievement ; so different, in fact, as to fur- 
nish abundant explanation to one who knows the usual 
rate of progress of the human mind, why several thousand 
years should have elapsed before attaining it. For let lis 
see what was to be done. In the first place it is j>lain,that 
the raised impression above described as having suggested 
the idea of fictile shaping, was by no means an exact tran- 
script of the glyjihical inscription. The distinction will be 
clear, if it be conceived that our present engravings are 
made to characterize the image by the prominences, not 
the countersinking : but the latter was the feature render- 
ed, in the case supposed. Besides there was here no means 
of preserving the relative position of the letters or symbols 
towards each other, and their position towards the reader 
would, in fine, be turned upside down. Surely this was 
a complication to puzzle the brain of a barbarian ; when, 
even now that the whole is known, it recjuires an effort of 
reflection to surmount a portion of the difficulty, in reading 
the motto on a seal. The seal in fact is the exact image of 
what was Avantcd in the shaping figures; that is, it was re- 
quisite they should be fashioned with such ulterior design. 
But this was a long stretch of abstraction to the ages in 
question. It found a commencement, however, in the first 
formation of the fictile juodvl for casting ; a simple and in- 
dividual beginning, as best befitted the feeble intellect. But 
from this to the numerical complication of figures in a word 
or row, and thence to the linear complication of rows into 
a pnge, and lastly the convolution of those rigid pages into 
a volume — all this, I repeat, was necessarily the task of 
a thousand ages. It had accordingly to await the devel- 
opment of one of the arts of the succeeding series, I mean 
Carving, which gave thefliculty of making complex models 
upon wood ; and configured no longer with a view to the 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 2? I 

direct, but now to a rcflectcfl impression. This rude wood- 
cut, while freshly pointed, by being repeatedly inked, 
transferred a whole inscription or pfjgc at once to a plain 
surface; and thus was born, after tedious travail, the art 
of arts called printing. Nor is this epithet a cant comple- 
ment, but a prerogative inherently generally in the central 
position which it holds exactly, it will bo noted, in the 
scale. 

The process, however, was yet in its infancy ; the 
glyphs or types were fixed in space, and thus the engraved 
page was only good for what it covered. The requisite 
was then to make the figures of one or a few pages pro- 
duce pages innumerable by variation of the arrangements; 
in one of our technical expressions, to set them free in the 
plane of space. This was done by analyzing the said wood- 
cut into its individual symbols, thencefiirlh called types; 
which were thus prepared for the moveable com})ositions, 
and what was fjuite excusably deemed the magical powers, 
of sythcsis. How, by re-complicaling these with space, 
the progression advanced to stereotyping, and this it is 
known, by the two coadjutors of casting and moulding ; or 
how the whole train has been wheeled by press power in- 
to the final plain of time — all this I must forbear to farther 
pursue. There are few pages in the history of art that 
need so large an amount of discussion ; not so much from 
the intrinsic difficulty, which is, we now see, not very great, 
as from the mass of mystical absurdity which lingers still 
about the whole subject. Such, for instance, is the notion 
that the Type stage of the art was invented by Faust /^-er 
saltum, or what is much the same, I suppose, obtained 
from the devil. Also, that the wood or Block type had 
been peculiar to the Chinese. Whereas, the truth is, as 
will one day be no doubt established, that this ruder stage 
prevailed, in some shape, in Europe too, and prepared the 
way for the riper process, by the most equable graduation. 
Nor amid all those vaunted " inventions" that are paraded 
to the present day — pretensions made sufficiently plausible 
by the peculiar progressibility derived by Printing, from 
its complex elements of Glyphic, Plastic and Painting — 
I say that never, among all these, has the human intellect 
in reality, either deviated from or overleaped, to the ex- 
tent of a hair's beadth, that universal order of procedure, 



2? 2 VESTIGES OP CIVILIZATION. 

both by nature and by man, from the concrete to the more 
abstract, and through the three mathematical laws. 

§ 90. Fa'mtuig. We are brought by the allusion to 
painting to add a passing word upon this final form; I 
mean final of the second department. Its principles have 
been explained by anticipation. Its erection into a dis- 
tinct art was the kite result of a compromise between the 
extreme characters of its two sculptural predecessors; of 
an oscillation between the concavity of GJlyphic and the 
.convexity of Plastic, and which must end spontaneously 
in giving to Painting the middle direction along the sur- 
face. Its prior condition we have seen to be parasitical, 
that of mere concrete attendant upon the other arts of Im- 
pression : for even the master-pieces of Pharrasius and 
Praxiteles had probably been set off with colour ; which 
may also shew how the art of colouring was trained to 
operate on its own account. In fine it had its origin in 
the excrementitious dust of the aforesaid Hindoo. 

And this inferential tardiness is quite conformable to 
history. Homer, who mentions most of the arts anterior 
on our scale, has not the slightest allusion to the art of 
painting. Nor has Moses, who significantly forbade but 
'' graven images." It is true that this, according to the 
theory, would imply the staining of the glyphic. But 
what Moses, no doubt, inhibited was not the images so 
made ; but the Egyptian mode of making them, the pic- 
ture stage of the Hieroglyphics, which remained proper 
to the priestly caste ; of which the refugee leader of the 
Hebrew bondsmen, like all the regenerators of mankind, 
had a natural (though no doubt unreasonable) horror. 
The expression cited can therefore imply nothing con- 
cerning- an art of painting, even in the subsidiary condition 
described. Its subsequent history would be found equally 
conformable to all our tests. But I find myself out of all 
measure upon this department of illustration. Were the 
proof of a theory the whole, as it is the principal, concern, 
I might have been content with a simple reference to facts. 
But a natural classification of the eesthetical arts, for their 
own sake, was an object not to be disregarded incidentally. 
It is the preliminary step, and a step as yet to be made, 
towards a tolerable, not to say the true, apprehension of 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 273 

either their conditions in the past or their capabilities in the 
future. Be that as it may, having followed hitherto, though 
contrary to my plan the analysis, or rationale of their spe- 
cific series, I must now abridge by mounting upwards to 
the two generic forms ; the arts that is of Sculpture and 
Architecture. 



SCULPTURE. 



§ 91. Nor upon Sculpture, which is the generic sum- 
mary of the three preceding arts, need I now do more 
than add some requisite explanations. Princi2:)al among 
these is a certain degree of peculiarity in the conception 
of its strict province, and so the meaning of the name. 
For it must have been already observed T do not employ the 
term in the vague latitude of the current acceptation ; which 
is made to fluctuate over two-thirds of the scale, from Gly- 
phic along to Statuary. Its position in my classification 
defines it to be the art of producing^y%r^:s by excavation, 
by hollowing out ; in distinction from Architecture and its 
subordinate arts, which are occupied with producingyd/?-;;?, 
by just the contrary procedure. 

In the light of this definition the history of Sculpture 
becomes comprehensible : its existence, in t^ie sense ex- 
plained, in various countries of early antiquity, where 
Architecture proper, not to say Statuary, was still un- 
known; its presence and profusion, in the forward state 
of ornament, on the rudest stages of the art of building, 
as in Egypt, Assyria, etc.; but above all the conclusive 
fact of its having been the actual pioneer to this art, 
as witness the sculptured temples and tombs of the former 
country, and of all others, as will appear in the following 
section on the subject. 

its conformity, on the other hand, to the law of pro- 
gression from concrete to abstract, and under the ma- 
thematical conditions, seems equally evident. To the 
inclusive application, reiterated in the specific series, it 
will suffice to add a single indication. It is obvious, then, 
that Sculpture begins its excavations, not only with indi- 
vidual figures, as before instanced, but (to go back to even 
24 



274 vkstic.es of civii.izatiox. 

the iiravlug tonl.) in \\\v jH)i/its oi'hfi puuchiug. It c\!i>iu]s 
into //'.v<vv ; as in the lliilini;- of the Doric column — tlic ear- 
liest order, it is signiticnnt, ofnrcliilccture ; but still earlier 
is the intagliationwliicli tormcil the grouml of infant paint- 
ing. It wiuils into u Jii^iarJ surface, in fine, in tlie n)ck- 
cut tomb and shrine. 

Hero the process turns i/i^idc out, as it were, to pass 
into the Architectural series. In the character of Carri/fg 
it bulges into a partial solid, progressively from the lowest 
up to liigh relief. In the hands of 3Li!iO)iri/, the carved 
.materials are become arranged into lines, by whoso inter- 
sections is produced a structural form. In Statuary the 
form is modulated in a monolithic solid ; commencing, of 
course, with inert objects and culminating in the human 
-figure. Having thus allowed the indication to glide on to 
the end of the scale, I will stop, before j>assing to the 
Generic art of Architecture, to obviate a possible difliculty 
respecting one i>f its assigned species. 

§ 92. \\ would probably be disputed tliat Mason >i/ 
either belongs at all to the testhetical arts, or at least that 
its proper place is in the last and highest division. Con- 
tinuing, however, the universal criterion — of mental devel- 
opment in the contrivance and organic economy in the 
process — the following instance should suffice to dispel all 
doubt. For no where is the slow jirogrcss, the melan- 
choly debility of the human intellect more manifest than 
in the primeval history of the ArcJi. 

It is well known that the boasted architecture and 
civilization of Egypt had never attained to this seemingly 
simple, but truly admirable contrivance : there it was 
reached no nearer than the substitution of the lintel, by 
two long stones laid together in the middle. Egypt, be- 
ginning with the simplest oi^ figures, the pyramid, in ?/iat' 
te?', naturally ended with the same figure, the triangle, in 
sj^ace. The Etruscans or Pelasgi carried the sloping 
down into the jambs ; and then, through after ages, curved 
the latter upwards, until the pyramid passed at last into a 
cone ; the notable result and thus a proof of which is their 
characteristic dome. This, however, was but the arch by 
Sculj)turc; that is to say, wrought by cutting out the mason- 
ry to the requisite concavity. The arch pi'oper or Architec- 
tural makes, I think, its first, and of course a dim, appear- 



MVTIIOLOGICAL CYCLE. 275 

ancc wllli the later Romans. So that tlie progressive 
moflificatioijs aud combinations of the ihw lines that circum- 
8cril)e the cjntrance to man's dwelling, frrjm the perfbralion 
up to the porch, have left in stone a shameful scale of his 
development. In short, the history of the arch is the history 
of the Intellect in the primary or Mythological Cycle. J5ut 
the arch belongs to Masonry, it will not be denied. And 
to this might be still added — if all addition were not super- 
fluous — the mystical importance that has clung traditionally 
ground this art, though long diverging into the different 
organizations called " free masons." A phenomenon, of 
which this passing hint may supply the true solution, 



ARCHITECTURE. 

§ 93. I now hasten to instance briefly, in the remaining 
branch of the scale, composed, according to division, of the 
arts of Figuration. Having just glanced at these specifi- 
cally, they must be henceforth re[)resented in the article of 
Architecture, as their genus and type. 

In Architecture, as I showed in Poetry and proved to 
be common to all the arts, the object had been progressive- 
ly divinities, heroes, women ; the last in this case being rep- 
resented by the family and thus its dwelling. In other 
woius, all llixee vvere but the symbolized conceptions of 
man's own happiness, under the three progressive trans- 
formations of preternatural cause, providential character, 
and political or social community. The erections to cor- 
respond would therefore be tcmjjlcs, tomhs, palaces. 

But as the primary gods of the physical Cycle were 
the objects or elements of nature, these deaf and impersonal 
beings could not be imagined to need houses. Witness 
accordingly the fire-worshipping Parsees, who never built 
a temple to this day. It was only with the epoch of hero- 
worship, the apotheosis of the illustrious dead, that a house 
to harbour the divinity would become a distinct conception. 
Meanwhile the tomb of the chieftain would be the natural 
place of reverence, pending the process of his divinifica- 
tion by time. And thus the temple may be said to have 
grown out of the grave. 



2 id VK«HOKS OK civu r/.viK>?f. 

§ 91. Tho giavo, thou. tl»o tlwoUins; »>f \\\c (iopartotl^ 
WiUiUl iMOvilably l>o inoiloIK\l attor llio toim o( Ins Uvinv? 
aboilo. Ai\vl as iho lattor has hooii prinionliallv iMtlior 
oavos Ininowoil in tho oartli or tho ovovuhvs i>ri\H^ks. so iho 
loiuhs should havo boon luijiinallv oxoavalions. Sucli ai*- 
oonlingly do wo tiiul ihoni tnoro. ospooially in Kgvpt.whioli 
|nvsonts» nn(.h>ubto*.ny. tho i>Ulcst indigtMunis civili/aiion of 
tlio iiK>bo. It is vvoU Umnvn that lhi> Kulgos of rork wiiii'h 
skirt tho vallov i^f tho Nilo aro t^uilo piivoonhoU\l with 
rock'i'ul tombs in tho vioinitv of tlio gri\U oitios. osproial- 
ly tho moro anoiont. So tiH> all i>YtM' Syria, anil up to llio 
*• oavo" oC Maolipohih. wlioroin wt^ all kuvny tho h'allu^Y 
of tho Faitht'ul hiinsolf has boon outonibt\l. In niany 
pUxoos, Uppor Kgvpt, Ktruria, ami Sicily, thoso nooropoli 
or citits of t/if litaJ aro ov<n\ urrangoil into strot>tvS 
like ih.oso of^ tho living'. A truly striking inslanii\ tiot 
merely of tho imitation allogoil. but also iho uniform yvo- 
cedure of tho lunwan mini; which, instead of a[^p1ying 
the model in its actual state to tho individiial tombs, is foum) 
to run on upon tho original track, into the more coniplex 
conception of the aggregate. 

§ 9o. l^ut Kgypt. in the means i^fpossossitig as well as 
preserving- these primeval relics, was, as in n\any other 
things, peculiarly favoroil by nature. JMost the i^ther early 
settlements of Humanity in cities have chostMi the wido 
alluvial plains of the great Asiatic rivers, where the nat- 
ural materials for the rock excavations were loo raro 
or reniote. Add to this, that thu most convenient would 
not havo bt^en employed vmtil societies had acquired tho 
centralization and power which attach them to an nnpre- 
carious locality, ^or could tho custom bo continued by 
even nations thus enabled to practise it. if thrown anew 
upon the migratory lite which was almost normal in those 
primitive coinmunities. In those several predicaments 
another expedumt nuist be siuight. The simplest o\' course 
would be \o recur to the original pattern in its actual state, 
to copy anew the living resilience, but in its secondary and 
sfrucfi^ml form. A cluunber like that of the living, would 
then be erected for tho long sleeper, and covered over 
with a monnd oi' earth to protect, and perhaps hide, tlio 
relics, or rather the outfit buried with them, from luluro 
generations or hostile tribes. 



My/If OLOO JO" /./> CYtJLK. k11 

T}tiiH tlif; fjtory that Scrninirniu hiU'An^t] in thi« m'^nruA 
\i(,r roy;il r/nifjjn, only iihing th*j ])h.hit.<} ilHolf to »ijit th^j 
rank of tljo (\('A'A'/.inoA\ ; i)t'm inuVitU/ti, I «ay, i'h but the rtq)- 
ir.ncnUtU' ni of n univcr^/'jl, nay a norjcH^iary, fact; though 
ofurn floutcrl a« a faf;l<.', through tlic xarne iJhifcionw of rn'>- 
florrj j«i<lgn»or»t w}»ich hfj/1 h<?g^;it^;n tljo ancient folJy. 
In J}ic <'.'ii\'u;r or ]i\irfi\>h:r KtagcH tho uriuXKc in fiUj-Ma*] at 
t.}ii*( flay, hytljc Tftyrhuh oilurnuVi, which arc found to hc- 
Htrcw til*} c;irlh not only from Jnrlia to Ireland, hut al«o 
along the hurjkn of the Ohio and the MijtftihcJppi. In f;ict 
the »/;rieH in the latter iftHlniKAi hi tlie more consecutive if 
fjot al^*/) cornpleU;; orcr^entingan ;j>;cen«ionyegularly gr-vlual, 
from the Kc;irce oii^cernif>le rnoundw ^m tlie hank--, of I>ake 
lOrie, up to the mountain pyramids of A nahuac and 'J'olteca. 
'J'hiK however, J beg trj remark, doe?) not prove, after the 
ijHual argument, the red mon t/j he of Celtic or Pelangic 
origin : nor even that the conlineTitH had Ikjctj originally on^. 
It only prove?* that both the raccH belr/Tig to the Hfime «pe- 
cie«, \KfMi',wA tho «ame gfjneral organization ; of which it 
wa« a neccHHary cjm*'>('j[n<iU<'Ai tliat the mie, no Ie«« tljan the 
otljcr, f^liould build tumuli for tlie dead as well as tents or 
v/igwams for the living : build them at vast intervals, it rnay 
1/e, of time a'4 well as space, yet at epochs not the le-.s identi- 
cal in the calendar of civilization, at iso-rnental wtages of 
hum^jriity. 

^ 00. 'J'hcHr; tumular structures, ahmg the old continent, 
are hupponed irj fact to represent the pfjssfige of the great 
Pifdasf/ic race; whom ihi". fdone, were there not also m?jny 
rjther <;^;rroborations, would evince to be the oldest then 
surviving upon the earth. They are, therefore, the besttype 
of the natural progression in this primary, this aesthetically 
mournful architecture. Wh^n-ever they obtained aperraa- 
rifjnt and predomifjant foothold, fju« in Ionia, Ktruria, and 
Greece, the tiimulus ii found :ising gradually into monu- 
mental magnificence. The mode of development was of 
course no other tlian that we saw, f<ir example, in language, 
afhxingthe verb?£l particles one upon another to make up 
the tliird elemerjt r>f* predication. It was done in fact by 
tlje f-,U[)erposition above described, of the tumulus upon the 
tomb ; tlie latter being here too, it is worth noting, the rock 
excavation at first, and later the structural cell, only now 
multiplied info a more or less intricate tissue of apartments. 
24« 



2T8 VESTIGES OF CIVILlZATIt)^. 

This is the origin and nature of the Labyrinths of antiqui- 
ty ; which make the superaddition of cunning to force in 
the design of preserving the dead. The result of the 
whole was the third and final transformation of the grave, 
which I call the Monumental; as the preceding two may be 
termed the Tumular and Sepulchral. The three I believe 
embrace and characterize all the forms known to exist. 
And all have in fact been classified by these very character- 
istics, but without, it seems, a glimpse of the rationale. 

To be quite satisfactory, however, it may be well to 
follow somewhat farther the development. In mounding 
the tomb, thus progressively enlarged, the earth could not 
be piled high without inconveniently widening the base; 
nor kept up against the weather without some means of 
support. To remedy this double inconvenience the mound 
was tucked to a certain height, by a sloped groundwork of 
stone ; and then to ease the lateral pressure, as well as 
promote the great end of elevation, a shaft was inserted, 
first in the centre, and after repeated, in process of experi- 
ence, at each of the four corners. I say the corners, for 
the facing would, necessarily, be angular and of unbroken 
lines, no curved masonry being imaginable at the time. (1) 
Now let these five stays or, as they are technically termed, 
steles, be supposed to pass quite naturally from perishable 
wood (2) to durable stone, these pillars be hung with bells, 
and the whole roofed in by an umbrella; and we have the 
tope tombs of China as they exist to this day. Let the 
steles be elevated gradually, that is to say abstracted from 
the earth, until elongated into towers of some four 
hundred feet high, and we have restored, in the mind's 
eye, the celebrated tomb of Porsenna, in Etruria ; reck- 
oned in antiquity one of the ** wonders of tbe world." 
Let the five towers, which have thus outgrown the original 
purpose, be next fasciculated into one, by simply filling 
in the facing produced upwards, of course, to a point, and 
we behold the primeval birth of the pagodas of India, 

(1) Thus the famous ^^ round towers" of Ireland evince a concep- 
tual development beyond all the angular architecture of Egypt. The 
former is the fully figured stage, the latter but the finally linear. 

(2) Another enigma to our profound American archaeologists is 
the presence of the rotten remains of some wooden beams or poles 
found occasionally embedded in the earth-mounds of the West. The 
text supplies spontaneously the simple explanation. 



iJYTHO LOGIC At, CtCLE. 2ld 

and- the pyramids of Meroe. Let this tomb-temple of a 
provincial Ragis be duly proportioned to the magnifi- 
cence of a universal monarchy, and lo ! we have the great 
pyramids of Egypt; another of these vi^orld-vvide wonders. 
A third has been already explained spontaneously in the 
last paragraph, I mean the Labyrinth of the same country. 
Thus might the tumular character of these oldest and 
quaintest architectural structures of the earth, if not already 
ascertained by inspection, be demonstrated a priori, and 
derived by lineal extraction, or progressive abstraction, 
from the sepulchral excavations of the sacred mountain 
hard by. The difference between the extremes was only 
proportional to that of the inmates ; between the soulless 
slaves of a theocratic despotism, and the monarch of a 
mighty empire, a demigod to boot, in fine a Pharoah, 
which announces, etymologically, the offspring of the sun. 
And had the builders of Porsenna's tomb been left to 
consolidate their federal cities, and the Hindoos their petty 
kingdoms, into monarchical unity, it is more than probable 
that Latium and India might boast their pyramids at this 
day ; as did Babylon and even Mexico under more or 
less analogous circumstances. 

§ 97. But it may be still said, Egypt offers no speci- 
mens of the intermediate transitions I have traced. This 
cannot be well pretended : for there remain, I believe, 
some stele tombs acknowledged to be coeval with, and 
probably anterior to, the pyramids. The most decisive 
proof, however, is the Obelisk; whose priority seems un- 
questioned, and of whose much debated origin the expla- 
nation is no other than this, that the obelisk is the mono- 
lithic medium between the carving, in form, and the indi- 
viduality, in position, of the fouv original steles, and their 
structural configuration into the four-sided pyramid. But 
were it otherwise, it would be easy to conceive how the 
mental procedure in this instance would be modified, as 
above explained, by certain local peculiarities. In fact the 
rock-cut tombs of the Egyptians were already mounded, by 
the mountain from which they are excavated. The stage 
of tumulus was supplied naturally, therefore; as far at least 
as requisite to this most stationary of nations. The moun- 
tain was thus the mammoth monument of the people. And 
it was a conception plain to the puerility of tliat time, 



260 VESTIGES OF OIVILIZATION". 

thongli profoiiiKl to tlie philosoplior ol'oiiis, lluU the owner 
of* this whole people should engross a mountain-nionument 
all to himself. 

It has accordingly been conjectured — I need hardly 
say by a Frenchnum, whoso name however I forget — that 
the Pyramids were imitated from the Sacred Mountain of 
Thebes. Of course he was pronounced a visionary by the 
heavy-headed antiquaries of the North. Yet it could 
not be denied that the sepulchral hill coincides exactly 
with one at least, and this the most eccentrically-shaped of 
those structures, the great pyramid of Saccarah. But to 
neutralize this extorted confession they set themselves to 
argue that this must have been the latest of the lot. The 
contrary, however, seems clear, not only from the awk- 
ward configuration, one of the sides being as much as twen- 
ty-five feet longer than another ; but especially from the 
peculiarity of having its chambers all excavated, in the 
primitive fashion, from the living rock. For upon this as 
a basis, the tendency of later creations would be to the sym- 
metry of exterior and structural interior we accordingly wit- 
ness. Do we not again see an equally extravagant instance, 
the same puerility of taste, in the inteiior arrangement 
of another and kindred monument of the same people, I 
mean the great tumnlar mole of the Labyrinth ; which is 
said to have been divided into thirty-seven compartments 
to imitate the thirty-seven departments or Glomes, as they 
were called, of Egypt ? And thus the tumular series, 
which overspread a hemisphere elsewhere,would have been 
evolved, the same, only on a narrower plan, along the 
banks of the Nile alone. It is this extreme contraction of 
the scale, viewed moreover through the foreshortening of 
so many ages, that occasions much of the general confu- 
sion and, I venture now to say, preposterous classification 
of Egyjitian architecture. However, the transition we 
may be sure was minutely gradual, in one or the other 
way. For to imagine, for instance, as is usual, the pyra- 
mids, though the simplest of structures, arrived at per 
saltum as they stand out amid the solitude of antiquity — 
this were a conception not a whit less absurd (which, how- 
ever, to the men in question, may not seem absurd at all) 
than to suppose it possible to Cheops himself to have in- 
vented the steam-engine or the printing-press. 



MYJ 110 LOGICAL CYCLE. 28 1 

Tlio lorn}), llif;rj frnlificd into a mound elevated into 
a rnonumont, ab.slracted into a pyramid or a pagoda, waf> 
tlic firrft and is tlie simplest arcliitectural formation. The 
Ijest of reasons is, that it requires neither conception in the 
huilders nor cohesion in the materials. A child builds a 
pyramid of sand. Even the singular structure of the white 
ants takes the pyramidal foim. Is it not remarkable 
then, to see thus embody itself instinctively in stone 
the very triangle which has so often recurred as the ne- 
cessary foundation, or the frame of every science and of 
course every art, and which I have ventured thence to de- 
sigTjate (§ IG) the triad of Thought? 

§ 98. But these sepulchres of the venerated in life 
would also become objects of reverence first, and after, 
places of worship. This development is accomplished in 
the pagoda so fully that the original destination is utterly 
forgotten. It is also traceable in the altars of the pyra- 
mids themselves. It is determinable still, from the in- 
ternal evidence of structure, in some of the larger tombs 
of ancient Italy, Greece and Asia Minor. But it is 
evincei^l conclusively in even the first stage, by the fact of 
placing offerings upon, and performing ceremonies at the 
tombs of the dead — a custom known to be common to all 
the primitive communities of the earth ; to the Indians of 
our own deserts and day, as well as the ages of Homer, 
some of whose sublimest strains are inspired in describing 
the sacred ganies al tuii bcpalchrcs of Tylyus and Patroc- 
lus. Here is the passage to the joyous worship of early 
humanity, for which death has now no sting, and the grave 
is scarce a victory. Why I shall have subsequent occasion 
to particularize. Meanwhile the facts afford a new proof 
of the pri(jrity, in the career of civilization, above accredited 
to the race called Pelasgic; and by which I understand 
those primeval and migratory representatives, of commerce 
in ancient Tyre, of the short or literal alphabet in Phenicia, 
of the Homeric poems in Ionia and the Ossianicin Ireland, 
of the plastic arts in Etruria, and over Europe and Asia 
generally of Tumular architecture. And the antiquity 
affirms in turn the purpose of the last characteristic to have 
been templar too, and explains moreover the absence, 
thought so strange, of any edifices by this race, of a dis- 
tinctly religious destination. This step was probably first 



282 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

made in the rock-temples of Elephantine, Salsette and Ello- 
ra ; which are thus demonstrably posterior to the erection 
of pagodas. Hence it also is, that nothing of this kind is 
found in Egypt for some thousand years perhaps after the 
epoch of the pyramids, steles, and rock-cut tombs. And 
v/hen the temples do ap2:)ear, it is, characteristically, by 
shifting the locality higher up the Nile. Nubia, which 
exhibits the tomb in only the final development of the py- 
ramid, with a sanctuary, is the great scene of the earliest 
and excavated temples. Here is a cross proof of the suc- 
cession — at once by analogy and exclusion. The ration- 
ale seems this. With the moral development of mankind, 
and experience enough of society to feel how much the 
happiness of communities may be influenced by a con- 
queror, a king, a lawgiver, some traditional benefactor of 
this kind is divinified quite spontaneously into living and 
presiding personality. And this of course suggested a mo- 
dification of mansion ; not only for the residence of the god 
and his sacerdotal retinue, but also for the reception of the 
petitioners, that is to say, the bearers of presents. This 
distinct transformation of the tomb is the Temple, and 
constitutes our second architectural formation. 

§ 99. The separation however, must, according to the 
law of progression, be at first incomplete. The connexion 
would linger still in the fundamental form, that of excava- 
tion. Accordingly most the Theban as well as Indian 
temples of the epoch in question are found cut from ilie 
rock, either wholly or with the facing of a structural porch ; 
just as we 'saw the pyramid commence in the parapet of 
the mound ! To extricate itself into substantive existence 
the temple must adhere to the tumular pyramid, until it 
have somewhat to lean upon at the other side. Such is 
accordingly the exact character of the more modern pago- 
das ; where the pyramid is a mere appendage, surmounting 
the entrance, and its ancient sanctuary has retired gra- 
dually through a corridor or court, emerging at some dis- 
tance into what is now considered the temple. The other 
prop was supplied, as usual, by the third Elementary prin- 
ciple, the Palace. The private residence, even of the great, 
was hitherto a hovel comparatively. By this alliance with 
the temple, it gained in dignity what it gave in support. 
The result was, the complex structures termed accordingly, 



iiYTHOLOOlCAL CYCLE. 233 

"Temple-palaces, and which are known to have been the last 
development of Egyptian architecture. And it was the last 
stage of the art in Egypt, because it was the end of .the 
Physical Cycle ; of which Egyptian civilization generally 
leaves the most complete and characteristic of records. 

§ 100. I need not again remind the reader that it is the 
same psychological procedure, exhibited here in stone, 
which he has witnessed so often already ; for example, in 
language, where the pronominal vocable was seen adher- 
ing to the substantive, and this compound again com- 
plicated by successive agglomeration; until the analytic 
progress of modern languages had set the elements of 
predication free to signify severally the subject, the attri- 
bute and the copula. This analysis had commenced in ar- 
chitectural expression, too, with the accession of the philo- 
sophic Greeks to the throne of the Pharaohs. The temple 
had now become both structural and independent. But 
it was only to fall forward into the subsidiary rank of gal- 
lery, as at Athens, for the exhibition of painting and espe- 
cially statuary. This was a re-attachment of the tomb 
again to the temple. The latter was made a theatre for 
the inmates of the former ; no longer concretely, of the bo- 
dies in sarcophagi, but abstractly of the statues hi niches. 
It probably modelled the dramatic theatre, which seems 
to have been the distinctive architectural expression of 
the Greeks. The re-union is more physical in the barba- 
rism of the middle ages, when it procured the repositories 
of the dead, the common appellation o? cJturchyards. But 
there is still a more remarkable instance of this concrete 
tenacity. 

The inmates of the ancient tombs were placed by the 
Greeks, within their temples. The externals of the tomb, 
from steles up to pyramid, were piled upon the Chris- 
tian Church, and produced the spire and turrets of 
the mediaeval Cathedral. In fine, the mixture of tem- 
ple and palace — that early symbol of the " union of 
the church and state** — exhibits the same inverse pro- 
gression to decay. When kings were demigods, their 
abodes of course were " Temple-palaces." Now, how- 
ever, Victoria and even Nicholas are content with " Pa- 
lace-chapels.'* This architectural centaur of the infant 
imagination will be finally found to disappear with the po- 



264 VESTIGES 0^ CIVILlZAflOK. 



litical analogue in our own republic. We are also prose- 
cuting, in common with other countries, the like divorce 
between the cemetery and the church-'-not deeming the 
sanctiiication of the dead would compcnsato the infection 
of the living. But we remain, I think, behind most civi- 
lized communities in our predilection for that neo-barbaric 
superliietation of the tomb upon the temple, which is dubbed 
the Gothic ''order" of architecture. 

But 1 overstep the limits of both my space and present 
Cycle, solicitous to obviate the natural misgivings re- 
specting an exposition which thus, with the most symmetri- 
cal simplicity, at once evinces the errours of artists, re- 
solves the problems of ages, and above all explodes the 
traditional prejudices concermng the mystical " wisdom" 
of Egypt. I recapitulate then, and challenge refutation 
of the principle, that our law of progression, from the con- 
crete to the abstract, is traceable specifically in the histori- 
cal series of ancient architecture. That the monuments 
of Egypt belong to and complete the rude development of 
the Physical Cycle. That tiieir general character there- 
fore was statical Power ; and the artistic, or rather unar- 
tistic means of compassing this power, the three mathema- 
tical forms successively. That the application of Number 
produced the multiplication of heads, or limbs observed, 
also, in the Plindoo figures of their divinities, as well as in 
the ** many-dugged" Diana of the Egyptians. That Mea- 
sure or magnitude was the highest conception of the 
latter people, in their every edifice from the pyramid to 
the palace, and even down to the sculptured ornaments, 
which are all calmly colossal. It is the germ of dynamic 
Figure or motion that we find budding in the seemingly 
queer attachment of wings to the heterogeneous symbol of 
this Power. A combination all the more characteristic, 
that these winged lions and bulls are shown by recent 
oxploiations to have been much more common, in the 
later civilization of Assyria and Persia. In fine, the cor- 
respondence is attested generally in what are called 
the orders of architecture. Of these, accounted to be 
live in number, we have excluded the Gothic as a 
barbarism ; and the Composite is declared bastard by 
the very name. The pure and proper orders, then, 
are the Doric, the Ionic, the Corinthian. This is, too, 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 285 

the scries of ihcir relative rise atitl, of course, ascend- 
ing complication; the first and simplest being Egyptian, 
the second Ionian or Pelasgic, the third alone indigenously 
Greek. And they typify respectively our three Cycles in 
the architectural art; even as the three mathematical 
methods do the correlative Divisions of science. 



MEDICmE. 

§ 101. It was the same in fine v^^Ith all arts whatsoever. 
Take any of the most divergent from those we have been 
considering, for example, the so called " learned" art of 
Medicine. 

Like all others, the healing art must have commenced 
with the individual, the obvious, the concrete in ailments ; 
it must have fust been applied to local lesions, such as 
wounds, fractures, dislocations. Accordingly, its earliest 
appearance in history is under the character of Surgery. 
The testimony to this effect of Homer and others, respect- 
ing primitive antiquity, is signally corroborated by the 
relatively superior skill displayed by our American and all 
other savages in this therapeutic department. The obser- 
vation would have much modified the celebrated inference 
of Cuvier concerning the high civilization, nay science, of 
ancient Egypt. This great naturalist, it is known, on de- 
tecting a fracture properly set in the collar-bone of a 
mummy supposed as old as the pyramids, concluded the 
contemporary existence of a science of anatomy. He 
should have reflected that in the history of civilization a 
" bone-setter" is an earlier calling than even a baker. 

The next and much a later stage of the medical art, is 
Pharmacy ; wherein the diseases are of a description less 
palpable und 2^ ' essing , and the remedies arc applied more- 
over internally. Here too, however, the applications were 
suiTiciently manifest and simple, still, to have come into com- 
paratively early practice. They might indeed have been 
learned, and probably sometimes were, from the yet ear- 
lier practice of certain of the lower animals ; who are led, 
of course by mere instinct, to the use of simples as evacu 
ants. The class of Alteratives were naturally and his- 
25 



QSQ VESTJOKS OP CIVILIZATION. 

torically of later JcvclopiDent, as bolli administered inter- 
nally and o[)erating im2)ercc2HU>ly. For this kind of reason 
it is that wo find Medicine so long confounded, with jug- 
glery, sorcery and superstition. 

Last of all comes the conception of prevention, and 
the stage styled the Dietetic. There was here neither a 
remedy applied, nor yet a result produced, in the positive 
sense ; there was only a conscqumce or contingency /^re- 
vented. But this was a conception completely abstract, 
and not merely abstract but also reflex. It was to be 
reached by the human intellect only through the progres- 
sive elimination of all the preceding stages of compli- 
cation. Tlie discovery was, accordingly, reserved for 
Hippocrates, the Analogical (§ 32) father of medical in- 
vestigation. 

I may add, by way of general specimen, that the fun- 
damental principle of this dietetic system exhibits also quite 
characteristically our threefold method of Conception. It 
tirst appears in the theological shape of fasts, or abstinence 
from certain edibles, by the pretended injunction of the 
<Tods ; as in the institutes of Pythagoras, Moses, Bhudha, 
and all other primitive law-givers. With the metaphysi- 
cal epoch of the mind it takes the character of an entity, 
and appears accordingly the latest of the four cardinal vir- 
tuc-i of the pagans, under the appellation of Temperance. 
Finally, this medical precept, under the Rational concep- 
tion of the present age, is urged, we see, as a mere sana- 
tory and sociologic law of nature. 

§ 102. The theory ran in parallel, however posterior 
lines. The medical systems of all antiquity are reducible, 
historically, to three broadly distinct and successive classes. 
The earliest was the Theological; where the healing func- 
tions were in the hands of the sacerdotal caste, as for in- 
stance, the priests of Egypt, tlic Brahmins of India, the 
.Esclepiads of ancient Greece, and even the clergy of the 
middle ages. The second or metaphysical class was the 
thence called "Dogmatic" school; which taught occult 
causes, instead of divinities, to be the authors of dis- 
eases. Of this the founder is said to have been Hip- 
pocrates; which explains the historical tradition that 
lie supplanted the priests of iEsculapius. The third 
and last development of the art, in the primitive Cycle, 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLK. 



'281 



was (lenomirialed, no less Kig^nificarilly, iho " Mclliodls 
tic " school. I say tlio third ; f()r I rogaid ihe piece- 
diug school, named " Empirical," as a transition, in fact 
the metaphysical system of IIi{)})ocrales, arrived at its last 
extreme of" negation. This seems evident from their rule 
of pi'actice, which was, to proceed upon Jlicf.s alone, noth- 
ing but facts ; just the pretension, we see, of the so-called 
Baconian philosophers of the present day, who represent, 
in fact, the analogous epoch in natural science. (§ 34) An- 
other proof or at least a presumption is, that the sect arose 
among the Aksxandrian grammarians; who showed in all 
things but that barren caution of conscious impotence or 
sad experien(;e, into which the intellect subsides from illu- 
sory cycles of speculation. 

But this is a subject on which I dare not go on to 
speak from memory, instead of book. I will tlierefbre 
close with another general observation ; but one which 
contains, I think, the clue by which the classification might 
be continued throughout tlie medical schools of the two 
succeeding Cycles. With the three ancient classes in com- 
mon, the ground of theory was mainly method — which 
may explain why their ripest development took expressly 
the appellation; they naturally began upon the surface, or 
with the Symptoms. In the second Cycle, the attention 
passes chiefly to the Remedies, their abstract (qualities, 
their occult viitues, and various kinds. In the ultimate 
Cycle, it will turn prin(;ipally on the mode of operation ; 
that is to say the natural relation between the symptoms 
and the remedies. But here are manifestly our three pro- 
gressive bases of all induction ; Resemblance, Difference, 
and Unif(jrmity. And so, of course, if we draw out the 
three systems of the ancient Cycle over the three Cycles 
of civilization. Thus the Theological school which, in 
that case, would be typical of the whole trind, like the old 
women and vulgar of all times, prescribed for like symp- 
toms the same remedies ; disregarding the specific nature 
of the medicine. The Metaphysical and more modern 
systems, of which Cialen has been the oracle, professed to 
proceed upon the specific nature of remedies as well as 
diseases, and carried the opposition of doctrine to the 
characteristic extreme of erecting it into their celebrated 
maxim of contiaria contrari'is curantur. No less charac- 



288 vestic.es of civilization". 

teristically,^\vc have tlic reaction to this excess in the 
opposite system, styled Homoeopathy, in our own day. For 
the doctrine of Hahneman is mongrel; that is to say, it is 
half metaphysical, by the mysticism of its infmitessimal 
doses; and half positive or scientific, by its systematical 
reliance, upon the whole aggregate of symptoms and the 
sole method of expcriencL'. And in the application of 
even the latter it is naturally narrow and rudimcntal ; of 
which the absoluteness t)f his maxim — s'lmiHa slmilihus — 
may be taken as an infallible sign, riiilosophically, how- 
ever, the Homteopathic system seems to me the foremost in 
point of tendency. I should think it the modern analogue 
to the ancient Empirics, who formed, we said, the transi- 
tion to Methodism. Only the method now to come will 
be the synthesis of Science. 

But I beg pardon of the Faculty for presuming to 
meddle with their arcana ; and especially for adding, that 
until pathology shall have been conceived historically — as a 
subject of progression, like the body and the mind which it 
affects ; as undergoing a succession of forms accordhig to 
the ages of society, as well as those of individuals ; and then 
the remedies be graduated upon the complication of both 
organisms ; until this be done, I dare predict that the scien- 
tific epoch just announced will continue to leave them . . . 
where they have been hitherto, as now explained. 

GOYEENMEIS^T. 

§ 103. The progression was of course completely simi- 
lar, in the art of healing the body politic, that is to say, the 
physical body of Humanity, of Society. The remedies 
were first Penal ; the primitive legislation, a criminal code. 
See the Gothic codes of the middle ages, without excep- 
tion ; and the laws of all ages and communities in the 
barbarous state, up to the Ten Commandments and the 
Twelve Tables inclusive. This, we see, was quite con- 
sistent in the Cycle of Force. 

After came the therapeutic scheme of transportation 
by banishment, colonization, emigration, &c. ; which lingers 
still the leech and evacuants of our quacks political. This 
was equally characteristic of the Metaphysical epoch ; for 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 289 

the reason of the change was to spare life, for the sake of 
the entity called soul or will. Before this was discovered 
there could have been no scruple in executing all culprits ; 
nay, there was a positive and pious motive, for they were 
generally handed over to the priests to be butchered in 
sacrifice to the gods ; and so with the most sweeping 
and legalized infanticide. But when it was revealed that 
these little ones brought with them into life a something 
anterior and superior to it ; at first a part, and after a pre- 
sent, of the divinity himself, and like him created from all 
eternity ; where was then the timorous barbarian to lay 
hands of violence on the possessor ! For the barbarian, 
while he braves any thing and all things mtterial, from a 
fellow man to a monster or wind-mill, is like the child, a 
trembler at everything heyond ; he is the hero of all sub- 
stances and the coward of all shadows. A trait of hu- 
manity which the great Cervantes has omitted to put to 
account : perhaps, because Cervantes was not educated a 
priest. Be this as it may, such is the primitive principle 
of the metaphysical or moral Cycle. And the services 
which it thus rendered, the social advancement which it 
wrought, ought to be remembered by unbelievers, whe- 
ther atheists or iheists, in their blind invectives against its 
great natural representative, the Christian religion. 

The succeeding epoch of governmental Alteratives, 
brought the establishment of manufactories, &c., not only 
those within prisons, but also those without ; which form the 
natural transition to the Dietetic System. Of this system, 
which is, accordingly, the social problem of the present day, 
the principle (we now see) is as thus : Reason instead or 
Force ; Duties instead of " Rights ;" Knowledge in- 
stead OF Fraud ; Education instead of Superstition ; 
or to sum up all in a single term. Society instead or 
Man ; and the corresponding practice will be : absti- 
nence, forbearance, self-denial, in the regulation 
both of Property and Population. 



WAE. 

§ 104. Not even the wild and wanton art of War could 
escape the order of our scale of progression. Here too, the 
25* 



290 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

earliest, because the simplest, consideration was number ; 
it congregated together the barbarous hordes of a Xerxea. 
Next in diminishing concretencss came the stratified or li- 
near arrangement; it composed the Greek " phalanx ;.'' 
which operated still, however, with its notably elongated 
pikes, on the principle of Quantity, ofimpetus,of mere mass. 
The "legion" of the Roman army added the complication 
of motion ; it introduced a degree of internal organization 
by johiting the body into moveable " cohorts." Thus far 
went the mere mathematical development of the art, and 
consequently the proficiency under the Physical Cycle, 

Though restricted for the present to this period, 
I may go on to complete the example by remarking that, 
the army thus disposed into array, the art was prepared 
for the next accession, of Evolution and fortification. 
For what are these but a reduplicating the previous inter- 
nal organization, a complication of it uj>on the external 
and broader basis of space. But this was the principle 
proper to the Ethical Cycle, and those accordingly the 
great arts of tlie renowned strategists of Europe during 
the middle and subsequent ages. 

Finally, the Scientific Cycle is destined to superadd the 
still more complex and abstract element of Expedition. This 
advance is the result of the mental power of embracing all 
the prior complications of the subject so fully and familiar- 
ly, as to be capable of reconstituting and wielding them 
upon the new principle of time. War being the earliest 
of arts, it should also be among the first to manifest the 
new influence of these Cyclical revolutions. And when it 
is remembered that the advent in Europe of the last of 
these has been assigned to the date of the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury, we have, in conclusion, quite a pointed verification 
of the theory in the Greatness of Frederick and the Em- 
pire of Napoleon. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 291 

ClIAPTEIl II. 

PJiilosoj)liy of Human Institutions. 
SOCIETY. 



§ 105. Our illustration in this department must be limit- 
ed to the two principal, and indeed all-comprising cases of 
Religion and Society. Although this may seem the order of 
their relative rise, yet it will be best to postpone the treatment 
of the religious institutions : for, by this arrangement, they 
will conveniently introduce us to the division of Systems, 
to which religion gives their essential character under the 
Metaphysical Cycle. 

In the subject of Society, then, I may begin by distin- 
guishing, that institutions (in the ordinary acceptation, as 
in the etymology of the term), arc not understood to exist, 
until men have settled upon the soil, have attained to what 
Shakspeare terms a local habitation and a name. The ap- 
plication might, therefore, be content to commence also at 
the same advanced period, which is agreed to be the agri- 
cultural state. As, liowevcr, the theory asserts that the 
contrivances to obtain sustenance, which preceded and pro- 
gressively led to the institution of Society, must neces- 
sarily exhibit the universal triplicity of giadalion, from 
the Concrete to the Abstract, I shall not shrink from sub- 
jecting it to the crucial test of these /r^e-social ages of 
Humanity. 

§ lOG. We have both observation and tradition to light 
us back in fact to two of these stages, denominated the 
Shepherd and the Hunter states. And that men did not 
commence with the latter is equally evident. They could 
nearly as soon have commenced with killing and eating 
each other. So far otherwise was their disposition, that 
man at first conceived no distinction between himself 
and the other animals, but felt that every thing exhibiting 



292 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIO^^ 

life,- had a common and equal title to the lifeless produc- 
tions of nature. (1) Hence their equal inclusion by Moses in 
the covenant of God with man. Even the earth he could not 
for a long tim.e have molested, by cutting for such productions 
into its soil. And this not only because the process implies 
the previous contrivance of an instrument, but principally 
perhaps, because the earth appeared to him, in virtue of 
this productive energy, to be an animal like himself, and 

(1) Among the many literal examples of even the most paradoxical 
views in the text whicli have been since encountered in the course of 
examination, the following is one which I cannot resist the temptation 
of quoting, though contrary to my resolution, against all addition 
for the present. It will serve to illustrate not only the point before 
us, but also a number of others, throughout the book. I add that the 
author was a German missionary among the Indians for some thirty 
years. 

" I have often reflected, says Heckerwelder, on the curious con- 
nection which appears to subsist in the mind of an Indian, between 
man and the brute creation, and found much matter in it for curious 
observation. All beings endowed with the power of volition and self 
motion, they view in a manner as a great society, of which they (man- 
kind) are the head. They are in fact, according to their opinion, only 
the first among equals. Hence in their languages, those inflexions of. 
the nouns, which we call genders, are not, as with us, descriptive of 
the masculine and feminine species, but of the animate and inanimate 
kinds. Indeed they go so far as to include trees and plants in the first 
of these descriptions. All animated nature is in their eyes, a great 
whole, from which they have not ventured to separate themselves. 
They do not exclude other animals from their world of spirits, &c. 

" A Delaware hunter once shot a huge bear and broke its back bone. 
The animal fell, and uttered a most plaintive groan. The hunter in- 
stead of giving him another shot, stood up close to him and addressed 
him in these words : ' Hark ye, bear, you are a coward and no war- 
rior as you pretend to be. Were you a warrior, you would show it 
by your firmness, and not cry and whimper like an old woman. You 
know, bear, that our tribes are at war with each other, and that yours 
was the aggressor. You have found the Indians too powerful for you, 
and you have gone sneaking about in the woods, stealing their hogs. 
Had you conquered me, I would have borne it with courage, and died 
like a brave warrior ; but you, bear, sit here and cry, and disgrace 
your tribe by your cowardly conduct.' I was present, adds Hecker- 
welder, at the delivery of this curious invective. When the hunter 
dispatched the bear, I asked him how he thought that poor animal 
could imderstand what he said to it ? Oh, said he in answer, the bear 
understood me well ; did you not observe how ashamed he looked 
while I was upraiding him V^— Historical acct., p. 247. 

How many a civilized moralist, both preacher and philosopher, do 
we every day hear " upraiding" upon the identical principles of this 
unsophisticated savage. 



MrXHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 29S 

moreover awfully more powerful. There remaiiied then 
to begin with but the fruits above the surface, and which 
asked no intermediate process either between the tree and 
the hand, or between the hand and the mouth. It was 
only when this Acorn supply of fruits fell short that resort 
was had to digging into the ground for roots. Accord- 
ingly, our North American Indians, though advanced into 
the hunter state and even to the cultivation of some patches 
of maize, are known to fall back, on occasions of scarcity, 
upon the two primordial resources described. We are 
told by recent travellers of a certain tribe named the 
Shashones, inhabiting at this moment the territory of Ore- 
gon, and numbering some ten thousand, who subsist ex- 
clusively upon roots and berries, and have thence received 
the designation of " root-diggers." The East-Indians, 
too, inhabiting the woods of the extreme peninsula, still 
fare, it seems, upon precisely the same articles. But there 
is a curious fact more simple and concrete still than either. 
Humboldt visited a community of savages on the banks 
of the Oronoco, who, when prevented by the rain -season 
from gathering insects, lizards and roots, fed upon a loamy 
description of earth. Nor is the instance at all singular. 
It is well known that the negroes imported into the 
American colonies from the coast of Guinea, had to be 
kept by punishment from devouring a sort of clay which 
resembled that of their native soil. In short, the propen- 
sity is general among the inhabitants of the torrid zone, 
where the means of subsistence are spontaneously most 
abundant ; but also where men have remained (and no 
doubt, for this reason) the nearest to the infancy of the 
race. Nay, we need but look around us at the infancy of 
the individual ; who must exhibit, as I pretend, the same 
phenomena in miniature. We will not appeal to mothers 
in cities, wdiere candies are more accessible than clay; 
but those in the country know the difficulty of keeping 
children from stuffing the mouth with this primitive species 
of comfit. But more pointedly and profoundly slill, are 
not the mothers during pregnancy often affected with the 
mania of this vicious, or shall I say, natural appetite ? Is 
it that the foetus, * * * but to return to the application. 
The result is that we find not only a state of human exist- 
ence antecedent to the hunter ; but see it, moreover, sub- 



294 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

divide itself into three successive stages, according to the 
uniform law of all progression. 

Now, it was after proceeding thus for ages in the pro- 
curement of food, from the less to the more organic in 
the objects, and the less to the more abstract in the means, 
that men were pressed by hunger, taught by example, often 
furnished at their own expense by the lower carnivorous 
animals, and trained by experience, to enter upon the 
hunter state. Here his resources of abstraction and art 
received a much more active development, in the processes 
not only of catching but also of cooking his prey. 

The next and consequent advance was the adoption of 
the shepherd state. With the multiplication of the hunters 
and the proportional insufficiency of the animals in their 
natural condition, tlie expedient would now suggest itself, 
of taming and breeding them. It would be lirst for the 
flesh. But after, by a farther abstraction, for the milk, 
butter, cheese, in countries blessed with the sheep and 
especially the cow. The absence of these two animals 
would, perhaps, suffice to explain the observation of phi- 
losophers respecting the non-appearance of the shepherd 
state on this continent. But in fact the savages of the 
North had not attained the due development or they 
might have domesticated the buffalo of the prairie, as the 
Peruvians did the Lama. And as to the latter, who, 
with the Mexicans, were found deep in the agricultural 
epoch, we know, I think, too little of their previous his- 
tory to pronounce. After all, the state in question may 
not be a necessary stage of the development; but only a 
diversion occasioned by a peculiar constitution of the 
country. In regions destitute of either wood for game or 
soil for culture, such as the vast steppe deserts of Asia, 
we find this condition of pra3-social or patriarchal humanity, 
prevail from the earliest ages without perceptible change 
to this hour. Be this, however, as it may, the continuous 
possession, with the provision and forecast implied in the 
process, presents, no less, the primary stage in social pro- 
perty and economics. 

§ 107. It is succeeded by the Agricultural state ; which, 
also, consists mainly in the domestication and breeding of 
vegetables. This stage, it might be therefore supposed, 
should have preceded the previous ; seeing that the vege- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 295 

table kingdom liokls a lower, a simpler grade than docs the 
animal in the scale of organization, and also that, as we 
have just established, it was the earlier to have been en- 
countered in the instinctive pursuit of food. But this 
supposition would overlook one or two of our fundamental 
axioms, as well as the concurrent testimony of all history. 
The axioms are : that in the acquisition of knowledge we 
proceed from the more to the less known, and in its applica- 
tion from the more to the less organic or abstract (§ 39). 
Now man, we saw, was to himself the first and fundamental 
type, not only of explanation and expression, but likewise of 
art. Ariific'ial production must, therefore, begin with the 
animal kingdom; with which the analogy, the sympathy 
was vastly more immediate, at once in the scale of being 
and in the manner of multiplication. Moreover the edu- 
cation of vegetables, though they be simpler in constitu- 
tion, is really the more complicate and difficult art ; for it 
involves the farther cultivation of the earth, with which 
the shepherd state is not essentially concerned. And that 
this is the order of progression is evinced positively by 
the familiar fact, that it is only in the present age that the 
art of culture begins to reach the so-called inorganic ele- 
ments of production, the chemical properties of soils. For 
any of these various reasons, then, the Agricultural state 
must be the latest of the prae-social ; and it accordingly 
involves or is the usual compound, the convolution of all 
three. (1) 

(1) If however there should bo a reader who, In spite of dcnion- 
Btration, would take the foregoing for a fancy sketch in cither its divi- 
sions or development, I would invite him to ponder the following. 
lie must not suppose I affront his doubtless mature understanding 
with a fable after the manner of -^sop. The story is a myth con- 
densing the pith of many ages of history, and this the history of the 
most primeval and indigenous people of the earth: — *' Prithu, one of 
the earliest incarnations of Christnu (the Mediator of the Brahminic 
trinity) married Prithivi, the earth. This goddess, liaving thereto- 
fore re/wsec^ to supply man wi7/i /oo(Z, her beneficent consort now 
commenced compelling her by heating and cutting her flesh. The 
still rebellious wife assumed the shape of a cow, and ascended Mount 
Meru (The Hindoo Olympus), to lay her complaint before the gods. 
The case being heard on both sides, the decision was in favor of Pri- 
thu. The lady submitted though reluctantly to the last. And since 
that time, says the inspired Purana, mankind are permitted to beat 
and wound her with spades^ ploughs^ and harrows, until she yieldn 



296 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

§ 108. It was, also, duly the first stage of society. It 
was the first to fix in the earth that second abutment of 
the arch of correlation between the External world and 
Man, upon which must rest, as we have seen, every solid 
construction of the latter, not merely the social but even the 
scientific. The migratory states were an aggregation, not 
association. Any semblance of the latter could be prac- 
tised only for the transient purpose of war. But this, 
though in fact the primary school of social disciplination, 
was, even temporarily, but an association of individuals. 
Society is, on the contrary, an association o? families, and 
for the purpose oi prcsci'vationyXiol of destruction. Pro- 
perty then and Family are the abutments of the social 
arch : a truth which enables one to measure the deep per- 
versity of Communism. Proceed we now to trace, in 
the superincumbent structure, the usual threefold stage of 
progressive complication. 

It was assumed, in the Introduction, that historical 
composition proceeded upon three principles piogress- 
ively, namely, genealogy, geography, chronology. But 
history is only the record or representation of Society. 
Accordingly, we after detected, under those empirical 
designations, the three fundamental methods of all con- 
struction, as of all conception, I mean the three mathema- 
tical relations or forms : for Number is even technically 
deemed a process of generation ; Extension a generation 
in space ; Figure, a generation of numbered extensions in 
time. The corresponding forms of government, as re- 
corded and denominated by history, are the Patriarchal, 
the Monarchical, and the Republican. 

Here, then, is a pretty complicated ordeal for our 
principles. For it must be remembered that the same 
series must (as just exemplified in the schools of Medi- 
cine) pass moreover through a multitude of intermediate 
grades, to reach the ultimate coincidence of its three 

ihem food." Thus far for the agriculturjil state. Is it not equally em-, 
blernatic of the stages assigned the Pravsoeial, that the three first of 
these avataras were successively into a fish, a tortoise (i. e. an amphib- 
ious and intermediate animal), and a hog, an animal ruinous to the 
roots upon which man subsisted, and accordingly sacrificed by the sav- 
ages of the Philippine Islands, too, to the sun ? 

Comment could only cloud the pertinence of this quaint record. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 297 

terms with the three Cycles. The more general unifor- 
mity will be better appreciated hereafter. Having to do 
at present with the primary Cycle, and thus the Patriar- 
chal type. I turn to the history of the latter, in the three- 
fold subdivision. It might be distinguished as the Cyclical 
series, and its general extension the Secular. 

§ 109. Of the physical Cycle we are aware the Con- 
ceptual characteristic consists in imputing all causation to 
Life. The physical author of human life is, therefore, 
taken, quite spontaneously, for the fountain also of govern- 
mental authority. This is the general spirit of the epoch, 
in all three stages. The modifications arise from the usual 
progression of abstraction, as to who this author may effect- 
ually be. At first it is, of course, the corporeal parent 
immediately. This is the origin of that paternal power so 
terrible in antiquity, when the father was authorized not 
merely to govern, but to dispose absolutely of, the person 
and property of his whole household ; but which we see 
reduced at the present day, by the gradual encroachment 
of the political, to a moderate chastisement of his minor or 
infant child. It also gave origin and name to the senatorial 
body, in the legislative order. Politically, however, there 
was no subordination among the several fathers as yet. 
Co-operate they might, indeed, and did, at least for military 
purposes. But there could be no compulsion to com- 
mence or to continue. The nation was a crowd of indi- 
viduals, of bare and barren elements. I shall term it the 
Democratic stage of the Patriarchal form of Society. 
For democracy is not a positive form of government ; it 
is the negation of all forms, the transition state of decom- 
position, — atomical, molecular and corpuscular, progress- 
ively (§ 24) — through which the governmental series must 
pass, from Cycle to Cycle. It may be witnessed, in the ear- 
liest form, among the Germans of the age of Agricola. It 
was just appearing in certain tribes of our North Ameri- 
can savages, for example the Five nations ; who are shown 
by even the familiar fact of their federation, to have been 
passing to the social, from the hunter, state. But, to 
mould into permanent association, for pacific purposes, 
this anarchical democracy, this negative equality, there evi- 
dently must be a principle, or rather a sentiment of swh- 
ordination. 

26 



298 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

This also was supplied spontaneously by the mere pro- 
gress of population. The eldest born would not only suc- 
ceed to the lather's presidency over the immediate house- 
hold ; he would generally be young enough to continue 
it over their ollspring, in the second degree. Indeed ho 
would naturally be deemed invested witli the succession 
upon birth. Thus, in fact, among the South-Sea Island- 
ers, the possessions of the father, whether an estate or the 
throne, passed at once to the newborn heir. I need not 
trace how primogeniture, once rooted in the soil of proper- 
ty, would thus transform, in a few generations, the pater- 
nal power over the family, into the chieftaincy of the sept, 
the clan, the tribe, &:c. ; as the same social combination 
has been named diversely in different tongues. This might 
be termed the Aristocratic stage of Patriarchy. This 
Aristocracy is the first organic form of government, and 
will consequently be the last, but upon aditlerent principle. 
For ultimately it will be the aristocracy of Reason, of 
science. Here it is the paternal aristocracy of wisdom, of 
experience, of age — things always supposed to go together 
before instruction can come by art. In this form it has 
been exemplified in every na.scent community, from the 
plains of Shinaar along to the Highlands of Scotland. 

Nor, it is plain, would the tendency be confined to 
the direct line. It would operate also collaterally ; first 
to confederate, and ultimately to commingle the gentilitial 
groups in a wider circle of unity. Naturally this consum- 
mation would be effected by intermarriage ; a due modifi- 
cation of the principle of generation. But it was frequently 
precipitated by conquest, by Force ; which also was the 
great criterion of right, in the Physical Cycle. The patri- 
arch or chief of a tribe, victorious in battle, would, from 
occasional leader, be raised into permanent ruler ; that is 
to say, depository of the public force, which is the exact ety- 
mology of the word king. His followers on the other hand, 
would appropriate the lands and even the persons of the 
vanquished, and constitute themselves into an aristocracy 
of force. And being thus enabled, by the labour of the 
subject tribes, to pursue exclusively, a career of conquest; 
their dominion w^ould in time extend itself over the sur- 
rounding barbarians, into the still larger generalization of the 
social unity of the third grade. This, which constitutes the 



MnilOLOGICAL CYCLE. 299 

main stage, maybe called llie Monarchical form of llic pa- 
ternal principle of government. We liave still a Euro- 
pean, but much modified sample of this paternal despotism, 
in the empire of Russia. JJut the purest types have been 
the Turkish, Chinese and other oriental monarchies. Also, 
on the new Continent, the Peruvian and Mexican empires. 
It is a curious confirmation that, even the civil code of the 
latter people, indited in picture, should consist, for the 
greater part, of the article dejurc pairio. 

§ 110. The sole tie, then, by which these rude masses 
were strung successively together, thus far, was, I repeat, 
the natural relation of Family. Nor did the principle h^se its 
hold on reaching the point of culmination, but had, of 
course, a decline as slowly gradual as its rise. The de- 
clination was determined by the element of y<>rcc ; which 
we just saw cross it in the usurpation of Contpiest, and by 
which it was compelled, through the animal instinct of self 
defence, to resort to combinations more artificial, but still 
spontaneous. These expedients would be of two kinds, 
according to the two points of the social system, which 
were assailed by the disorganization of Force. For the 
military aristocracy of the ruling tribe, would tend to rebel 
against the monarch, whom they still conceived as but 
the depository and symbol of their power ; and the con- 
quered populations would, on the other hand, take such 
occasions to rise in arms against both the oppressors. 
To cure this double-issued eruption, was the political prob- 
lem of the epoch. And the paternal principle was, again, 
admirably successful for a season. 

Its method, however, was simple, because natural. 
Become too familiar as well as feeble in the original and 
earthly conception, it shifted its source into the skies. The 
transition was easy as obvious, from the father on earth to the 
father in heaven. Then the monarch was made the direct 
offspring of this all-powerful and heavenly parent, who at 
the coetaneous stage of nature-worship, was the sun. 
Hence, in fact, this divine paternity of the mythic ages 
of all nations. Hence, even within the historical period, 
the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Incas of Peru, the Mikados of 
Japan, the Rajpoots of the Hindoos, &c. ; for these royal 
appellations all import the descendant oVteaven or of the nun. 
By this device the descent of power was virtually restored. 



300 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

we see to the pristine basis, the relation of father to sun. 
But what was more peculiarly to the purpose, the inheri- 
tance was now so constituted as to be transmissible indefi- 
nitely to this heaven-descended dynasty, without incurring 
the attenuation of succession, or the faikire of heir. For 
it remained always immediate from the divine lather, to 
the son of his special designation ! and the god-parent was 
of course immortal in vigour, as well as vitality. 

Then, the same awlul authority that protected the mon- 
arch against the military class, was made, in turn, to pro- 
tect the latter from the subject populations ; who were en- 
joined by the general ordinances, styled revelations, to be 
resigned to their hereditary calling and condition. Here the 
principle of inheritance — ox generation applied to property 
— is found extended from the throne to the trade. The 
governmental part of the arrangement, I shall call the 
Theocratical form of Patriarchy. The organic part, the 
institution of Castes ; which is thus the secondary social 
formation. Both the things, it is familiarly known, have 
existed and operated side by side, under all the primitive 
monarchies of the world, from primeval India and Egypt 
down to present China and Japan. It cannot be unobserved 
how true they are, rcs})ectively, to the two foremost — the 
numeral and stratified — of our three mathematical forms. 

But whose, it might be asked, was the cunning hand to 
conduct this scheme to execution. It could not be the 
monarch himself; still less would it be the military, whose 
power it was supplanting; and least of all the servile, 
and then truly " swinish" multitude. The nature as well as 
adroitness of the thing announce the agency of the priest. 
Such were, in fact, the epoch and the occasion of his ad- 
vent to politics. The priest, at first and in the savage state, 
but a strolling juggler to the common people, is promot- 
ed later into the oflSce of sacrifice and auspication for 
the military class. But when this barbarian aristocracy 
have established the monarchy in question, and after turn, 
as they will infallibly, to usurp or overthrow it ; then the 
clergy are called in, as the natural supporters of the des- 
potism ; elevated into a special and hereditary order ; and 
assigned of course the highest place in the classification of 
Castes. Indeed they thus become the despots themselves, 
and of all parties. For while wielding the thunder of hea- 
ven against the populace, and the more formidable thunder 



MrniOLOGICAL CYCLE. 301 

of llie populace against tlie aristocratic class, we find them, 
by the same charter, interpreters at the other end, between 
the celestial parent and his royal offspring upon earth ; 
directing the latter in his whole conduct, declaring his fili- 
ation, and disposing in short electively of the throne. Here 
is a tissue which might well appear a satire upon Jesuit- 
ism, did it not constitute a strict analysis of many ages of 
the world's history. It is the s^jmepart that is now enact- 
ed by the Christian priesthood of modern Europe, where 
the despotism of the Ethical Cycle has succeeded to that of 
the Physical. A proof, by the way, that the Jesuits are of no 
particular creed, or country, or age; but simply signify 
the sacerdotal craft amid the crisis of a tottering system. 

§ 111. But at the epoch in question, as on the later 
occasions, all these clerical contrivances must have at last 
begun to give way, before the incipient development of in- 
telligence and free will. The Family type as a bond of 
society, had been thus attenuated into a fiction. The 
thread of fiction was, moreover, exposed to the pressure 
of a double strain ; which augmented, of course, in a com- 
pound ratio to the multiplication of the governed and the 
extension of the territory. In joint consequence of these 
fatal tendencies it came to be constfintly snapping asunder. 
The frontier provinces were frilling off at the traitorous 
touch of ambitious lieutenants ; even as we saw the comets 
had been diverted into satellites. (§ 23 note.) More rarely 
some bolder adventurer was impiously successful in wresting 
the entire administration from the holy hands of the clerg)-. 
Such was the origin of the Ziagf»on or acting emperor of 
Japan ; the real dominion of the " Son of Heaven" being 
for ages back reduced to the palace community of his mis- 
tresses and priests. Occasionally, and where the military 
body was suflficiently powerful, the ruptures would take 
the shape of an extermination of the clerical caste. Such 
was the massacre recorded historically under the heathen 
monarchy of Abyssinia. Such is also, I doubt not, the 
true explanation of the absence, deemed so enigmatical, 
of a sacerdotal order among the castes of ancient Athens 
and other Greek cities. The result accordingly, or rather 
a co-effect, of this early overthrow of the theocratic des- 
potism, is witnessed in the subsequent freedom, the philo- 
sophy, the civilization of that illustrious people, as com- 
26* 



302 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

pared with Egypt, for example, and India, where it was 
on the contrary, the mihtary caste who were compelled to 
retire or succumb, and the priests were left predominant 
to stamp into the soul of the people that irretrievable deg- 
radation, alike of breast and. brain, which, for twenty or 
thirty centuries back, has made the hordes of both these 
nations the same besotted prey to every successive adven- 
turer, from Cyrus and Alexander down to the English and 
the Turks. And if it were objected, that the clerical 
catastrophe was not followed in Abyssinia with the like 
salutary consequences as in Greece, it would be sufficient 
to reply that the former shook off the heathen priesthood 
only to fall into the chains of the Christian. Be this as it 
may, the whole social body now hung together loosely, 
precariously ; in days especially when there existed no 
standing armies at the disposal of the monarch to supply 
the absence of organization by physical as well as spiritual 
terror. Organization must then be provided, and on a 
different principle from genealogy. What must it have 
been ? 

§ 112. Our theory answers Geography, that is to say 
space. Quite accordingly we jijeet at this point, with the 
tertiary formation of society, to wit, the classification by 
castes turned into the Figured system called the City. Here- 
tofore the population dwelt dispersed throughout the ter- 
ritory whether in the patriarchal grouping by tribes, or the 
professional series by trades ; a disposition which evidently 
favored the dissolution just delineated. The nature of the 
new arrangement was an instinctive effort to co-ordinate 
both, upon the material basis of the earth ; to farther 
amalgamate these heterogeneous and refractory elements ; 
to collocate them within the precints of a compassable and 
walled space, so as to be under the eye, the influence 
and the arm of the monarch. But such a purpose would 
evidently be inapplicable to the entire population of a 
large empire. It would accordingly, be thought sufficient 
to comprise the chiefs or leaders ; through whom the mul- 
titude, in the respective districts, may be kept to order and 
to tribute ; (a term by the way, whose etymology bears 
exact testimony to the theory). These patrician chiefs, then 
with their crowds of slaves and qiiarturs of artisans, to- 
gether with the court and its similar retinues — such must 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 303 

have been the social elements in the capital cities of the 
Physical Cycle. 

Now this theoretical deduction presents a precise state- 
ment of whatever is known historically concerning these 
primitive communities, their character, composition and 
foundation. Athens^ for example, to which I have just 
alluded, is said to have been founded by Theseus, who or- 
ganized the pre-existing lay castes (the priestly order being 
somehow got rid of), with the subaltern tribes, into sys- 
tematic subordination ; and then collected the principal 
families, that is to say, induced them by special privileges, 
to dwell within the walls of the city. Servius Tullius did 
much the same, we are told, for the city of Rome. This 
third of the elementary social combinations is the first, it 
will be seen, to bear a character decidedly political ; a fact 
transmitted in the ancient and mediaeval sense of the term 
city. I shall therefore name it the Political form of Patri- 
archy. It might be also illustrated, though at a ruder and 
earlier stage, in the cities of Babylon, Nineveh, Memphis, 
&c. And it would in turn, explain quite obviously the 
most perplexing of the standing problems respecting those 
wonders of the modern as well as ancient world. For in- 
stance, the prodigious numbers of their population, in 
times and places with comparatively no manufactures or 
commerce. Also, the still more enormous ratio of the 
area which they enclosed, extending sometimes to a peri- 
phery of sixty miles or over. Again, the precision with 
which they shaped the walls to some symmetrical or regu- 
lar figure ; so unlike the suburban and non-descript out- 
line of all those cities whose growth is gradual and the 
builders miscellaneous. And most remarkable of all, 
though perhaps implied in the latter trait, the tradition 
that these vast cities had been each the work of an indivi- 
dual monarch ; and in the case of Babylon, it was added, 
by a confirmatory exaggeration, that the thing had been 
accomplished in a single day. But all becomes substantially 
credible and consequent if we conceive them to be human 
sheepfolds ; of which the inmates were fed by serfs from 
the richest pastures of an extensive empire ; of which the 
arrangements were constructed along the surface of the 
earth, for w^ant of political as well as architectural art to 
distribute them hierarchically; and which were conceived 



804 VESTTOKS OF ClVIllZATTON. 

iij>oii occaj^lon of the crises above tloscriboil. aiul oxeriitoti, 
with the design oi' pemiing up the organs of insiihonlina- 
tii>ii, by the more vigorous of those who now became, by a 
significant transition, to bo styled no longer the fathers, but 
the .f7/<;/>7/<*n7.v of the people. (1) 

§ 113. But all opposition to the course of nature is an 
ultimate promotion ot her ends. 8o it proved in the case 
of the city, the proximate germ of the State. The city 
was then, as it still continues, the foremost nursery of de- 
mocracy. Tt was thus, that Theseus (to pursue the con- 
formity oi^ the same example in various o^' its aspects), it 
was so that Theseus was said to have founded the Athe- 
nian democracy. For this was the speedy result oii his 
or'4anization of the city, although really, as we have seen, 
upon an aristocralical basis. The like result is upon re- 
cord in the general expulsion of their kings by the several 
other cities oi^ ancient Greece ; of the Tarcpiins by Kome, 
and of the royal power by the riuvnician cities of Car- 
thage, w'hich were all, like the so-called democracies of 
Greece and even Rome, in reality patrician aristocracies. 
For these were the three sole nations who had attained in 
antiquity to this the political term of the INIy thological Cycle. 
Then followed co-extensively the reign of Kepublics. 
But what were these republics ? 

They were, as an advance upon the preceding forms, 
an attempt to organize society on the basis oi' timt'. For 
the means were a constitution, that is to say, fixed law ; 
and the essence of law is duration. But they also involved 
the principles of place and kindred at the same time; even 
as we have seen, in all things, from poetry down to pottery, 
the third and iinal stages of the cyclical development 
agglomerated, so to say, w'ith the two anterior elements. 
Thus the republican constitution of Rome presents this 
threefold agglomeration. We see retained xhofdmiJy prin- 
ciple in that domestic despot, the " pater Romanus;" the 
determination by sjmce, in the land or property distribu- 
tion of" classes" or ** orders," which were the varied and 
vanishing ibrm of the castes ; the determination by time, 
in the legal designation of " Roman citizen" or "city;" 



(1) irji/<f^fj Xi«o» is the habitual opitlict for nuniaroh in Homer. 
Also in the Biblo. 



M'/'JilOLOGJCAL CYCLK. 305 

wIjJcIj rnovoK ulikf;, wo h';';, along t.}jf; l}jr(;o liuoH f^f tirno, 
Ijhioo, and gonoialion ; l.bat. ih to Hay, was in(]r;[>on(]ont of 
j>rivilogo, pronorty arjfl birt.}j. Tfjo narno rnixturo ofcour >;o 
j^rovailofJ in tijo ropnljlican r<^U'* of Grooco, lljough not. in 
Ko wfjl)tr;rrjpO'ro(l projjorl.if>nK, And it, waH thiH particular, 
no (]<)ii])i, that gavo itH relative uxcAiWcAicji and \()iiif^(tr du- 
ration to tbf; Roman organization. I'ljifi organization, 
then, which fbrnjH the political tranwition to the enHuing 
Cyr;le, I nliall call by a correwponding revernal of epitljet, 
tlje Patriarchal or patiician republic. It was tlje republic 
of Family and Force. Jllven UB our own republic will be 
found, at the arjalogfiUH cIobc of the Moral Cycle, to take 
the qualification <>i' monarchical, an a rejiublic of the se- 
cond orrJer which grounds upon Property ai^ Will, And 
J may add tlie republic of the tJjird and final order — had 
we occasion to go ko far — .should }je styled, in tlje same 
uomenclature, the rc/puhlirjin republic, as designating that 
ultimate perfection of the social system in which Scierjce 
would be tljo Tule of action, arjd intellect the right of go- 
vernment. 

'J'he Family or tribe, the Caste or class, the City or 
republic, as severally the two extrerrjes of the three epochal 
forms of governrnerjt ; Patriarchs, Kings, Lawgivers, as 
the tliree correlative governors; Birth — Human, Divine, 
Civic, as the three corresponding qualifications — such are 
tlje direct deductions of our theory from the Patriarchal 
type ; and they appear to be also exact 'mductions from 
the political history of the primitive Cycle. 

The course and correlation of the whole it may be 
well to present in a diagram. The scheme will answer at 
the same time for the two succeeding Cycles; which are 
but the usual reduplication of the same system of sub- 
series, only operated about different centres of develop- 
ment, as above explained. 



306 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 

(Organizing society through the 'principle of) 

Generation, 

[on the basis of) 

Objective Nature, 

{by the connectives of) 



I 
Kindred, Space, Time, 



[producing the social groups of) 

Family, Caste, City, 

[and the governmental types of) 

I 

Patriarchy, Monarchy, Republicanism. 



MnilOLOGICAL CYCLE. 307 

§ 114. The historical analysis is doubtless, from the ne- 
cessary condensation, extremely meagre and inadequate 
to the vastncss of" the subject. But the social principles 
and forms of the Mythological Cycle are not the less ex- 
hibited, I think, correctly and completely in this synopsis. 
And the present purpose is to see how far the latter is 
conformable, or otherwise, to each and all of our three ax- 
ioms of verification. 

Respecting the first, or the procession from Concrete 
to Abstract, from the less to the more complex, the con- 
sonance is clear, throughout every line of the diagram. 
Viewing it vertically, the order opens in Man himself, the 
known term; thence extends itself into external Nature, 
the other factor of the social system ; and there convolves 
those two elements, under the names of Kindred and 
Space (i. e. land), with that of Time, which is to say, 
institution, a building upon Xkia future ; the infant institu- 
tion liere having been Inhei-itance. And all this we see 
next reduplicated into the property line of the Family and 
the governmental line of the Patriarchy, progressively. 

Precisely the same congruity, if we view the order 
horizontally. The progressive complication is manifest 
in each series. Property complicates kindred; and in- 
heritance, in turn, property. Then the joint result of all 
three, the family (or " House " as was the term) is ffirther 
limited by the Caste condition; and this condition, again, 
complicated by the still more abstract rules, as its subjects 
were confined by the walls, of the City. Over the city, 
which I have shown to be the germ of the State, we find, 
in the next place, superposed the Patriarchate ; which 
being the monarchy proper of the Mythological Cycle, 
must end the upward progression. The two following 
forms in the diagram, named Monarchical and Republican, 
being destined, respectively, to rule the two succeeding 
Cycles, can therefore represent in this but the downward 
progress of decay ; the former dwindling into Tyranny, 
and this dissolving into Democracy, to re-enter into the 
combinations of the new epoch. 

In above exemplifying this genesis of the Patriarchal 
monarchy, an injustice has been committed which I hasten 
to repair. I there alluded to the Russian despot, as the 
sole European instance (with exception of the Turk) of 



308 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION, 

this theocratical dominion. And the assertion was correct, 
if we take the system in its age of vigour. But having 
just graduated its decay, I must add that there are two 
other samples, which, though deep in this sear condition, 
preserve the primitive identity purer, in despotism as in 
name. I mean the " Patriarch " of the eastern Cliurch, 
and his titular synonym the " Pope " of Rome — both 
twin monarchs (the Arcadius and Honorius) of the 
spiritual empire. We find also here exemplified the as- 
sif^ned stages of decay : that of tyranny has long dwindled, 
in even the stronger of the two fortresses, into almost the 
mere precincts of the Vatican ; and the democratic dissolu- 
tion follows after, in full ferment,with progressive pace, from 
the German monk to the Mormon prophet. But as all 
this belongs to the ensuing chapter, I omitted to give their 
proper position to those two venerable remnants of the 
Patriarchal type of government ; not at all that they could 
escape me as now beneath consideration. Indeed the 
omission I rather suspect to have been a pious instinct to 
conceal the sores, that is to say, the solitude of the ** City 
of God " on earth — made all but desolate by the double 
demon of mammon and mathematics. 

§ 115. However, these mathematics, in their threefold 
formula of all existences, the social as well as the physical, 
is the second test to be applied. But in the horizontal 
series, of generation, space, time, we have already recog- 
nized repeatedly the respectively progressive principles of 
Number, Extension, and Figure ; that is to say, in the 
first, the iiuiividual tie of parentage; in the second, this 
tie of parentage elongated into property, rooted in the 
soil ; in the third, this rooted parentage converted, at the 
other end, into the ramified configurations of inheritance. 
The procession is duly still more marked in the second 
series of the diagram, wherein this family tree, or 
" House," forms the three Numeral units, of which the 
graduated elements, from primogeniture down to slavery, 
present the germs, after elongated into the stratifications 
by Caste, and in the third stage configured into the clas- 
sification of the City. For the " classes " of the ancient 
cities are no other than the previous Castes, with the 
name altered to suit the fading of the servitude into 
freedom. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 309 

Like the preceding test, our mathematical forms are 
equally visible in the vertical order. The pointed kinship, 
the pullulations, of mere parentage cohere into lines 
in the Family ; and again are clustered into figure by the 
paramount unit of the Patriarchy. 80 Space (or land) is 
but property unified by primogeniture in the several fam- 
ilies ; Castes, an elongation, a perpetuation of the sorts of 
property which remain thereafter to the younger mem- 
bers and the menials of the social household, that is to say, 
the property of professions and trades ; Monarchy, a con- 
volution of the various castes or classes into the figured 
unit known, in modern Europe, as the feudal system. In 
the third, in fine, of the vertical series, the term Time rep- 
resents Inheritance individualized, that is to say, diffused 
equally among the family ; the City, the same equality 
elongated into institutions j the Republic, the convolution 
of all the Cities or States of the earth in the great organic 
unity of Humanity. 

The test makes here, it will be said, a large stride 
into the future. But as the full development of the last 
and pre-eminently social series is beyond my plan, as be- 
longing to the Scientific Cycle; and also as I have little 
hope, at this advanced stage of my limits, to resume even 
the middle or Monarchical series in any detail ; for these 
reasons, I thought it best to let both the tests run on to the 
end, and prove, like the nail of the statuary, that there 
is nor flaw nor fibre throughout the polished outline of 
the grand explication. 

It is scarcely necessary to declare the concurrence of 
the third and remaining test, respecting the Conceptual prin- 
ciples severally proper to the three Cycles. As to the first 
of these epochs, now before us, we need but glance at the 
above diagram to see I/z/e-imparting principle of pater- 
nity pervade the whole. The entity of Will, will be 
found equally pervasive in the ensuing epoch. And then 
the reader may see what else than Reason can well be 
monarch of the Cycle of science. 



27 



310 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Philosoj^lixj of flic Ileatlicn Bcligions. 



§ 116. It is the nature of all institutions that, springing 
in man himself, they require a support and a sanction from 
some thing external to him. The reason of this is clear; 
they are hi fact, as the term implies, an expedient devised 
provisionally, to the end of supplying the general igno- 
rance, ^vhile promoting the gradual establishment, of the 
scientific laws of harmony which subsist between Hu- 
manity and the mundane medium wherein it lives and 
moves. In the subject of Society, just considered, this 
snjyport had been attained, we saw, by that local fixation 
of nomad man upon the earth, which is designated the ag- 
ricultural state. And as to the sajiction, we also saw it 
drawn spontaneously from religion. 

Religion, on the other hand, being itself the supreme 
sanction, would need, of course, but the second requisite of 
mipport. This it seeks, at first, like the social institutions, 
in the material or real world, in a prolongation of life in 
the land. But this land of perpetual life is soon obliged 
to leave the earth, and recede into the spiritual, the im- 
aginary, the ideal. The ideal world in turn, commen- 
ced in the indefinite past ; it is the world of causes, or 
the demons that occasion men's sufferings. It is next 
swung forward into the indefinite future, where it becomes 
the world of co?fS€qnc7iccs, the scene where gods and 
angels are to recompense those sufierings which they had 
failed to forefend or cure upon the earth. And should this 
scene be ever permitted, by the weak suggestions of sense 
and selfishness, to gravitate into the intermediate and actual 
world of human affairs; why then the dogmas of theolo- 
gy will be the rules of reason, the laws of science. Mean- 
while, this triple division of the objects of all religions 
concurs in point of epoch with our three successive 



MYTHOLOGICAL CrCLK. 311 

Cycles. The first division makes the religions of Life, of 
force; the second, the religions of Will,, of fraud (that is, 
of course, beneficent deception) ; the third, the religions 
of Reason, of duty. Or, otherwise, they are respectively 
the religions of Fear, of Hope, of Gratitude. 

With the last, which is all to come, my present purpose 
is not concerned ; and 1 dismiss it with the remark, that 
it is destined to bring religion to owe, like human institu- 
tions, its highest sanction to the laws of nature. Of the 
two others, which lie afloat in the full freedom of the im- 
aginary, the first belongs in order to the Mythological ages 
of society. 

§ 117. But although Religion, during the infancy and 
the adolescence of Humanity, be thus not an institution in 
the ordinary sense — be not a projection, a prolongation of 
the general instincts of Humanity to reach their satisfac- 
tion in the material and known world, but on the contrary 
leans, itselfj for support upon the unknown ; yet the case 
is quite otherwise with its ministers. These in fact cannot 
live, like the creed they preach, upon prayer and promise. 
Nor yet, at the same time, do they attach themselves, like 
the founders of social institutions, to the rude practices of 
agriculture or the other useful arts. It is a law of life 
that all animals, as they ascend in the scale of dignity, 
subsist on objects more finely elaborated, more highly 
organized. Jiut Society we have seen to be the consum- 
mation of all organic nature. It is accordingly upon So- 
ciety alone that the holy men in question are found to feed, 
to fasten, to fatten. Prior to its full foundation, they had 
no instituted existence (what their antecedents really were 
I shall shun, if possible, to say). Upon it, as the basis, 
they erected the establishment termed anciently a Temple, 
and afterwards a Church. It was the unpropitious birth of 
those Siamese twins, called the Union of Church and State ; 
of which the real conditions, the vital ligament is thus per- 
ceived to be, a plain baiter of celestial sanction for tempo- 
ral support. The mongrel combination we just saw 
typified architecturally, in the so called " temple-palaces" 
of ancient Egypt. In fine, throughout the long career of 
this political centaur (as I dared to call it), the priesthood 
have contrived, with some " ups and downs," to be the 
rider. Of late, however, they seem threatened with being 



312 VESTIGES OF OlVIl.IZATION. 

finally dismounted ; and the eftbrt is to set the horse upon 
the man. But Humanity may smile securely at the early 
and obvious consequonco. 

§ lis. Returning to Keligion ilsolf, it presents through- 
out this whole progression the uniform triad of* aspects or 
elements. It is concerned with Divinities, with Kites, and 
with Doctrines. For the human mind, as I have shown 
repeatedly, cannot escape, even in its wildest fictions, any 
more than the comet in its eccentricities, the three mathe- 
matical relations. Here, in fact, we find the means pro- 
posed by Religion for human Hajijnness, take at first the 
arbitrary and mere multitudinous shape of Number; then, 
elongate or Extend the virtue, from the divine points into 
the lines of ceremony, the ligaments of the religious or- 
ganism ; and lastly, come to fold, to Figure both the fibres 
and the cells into a system, or as it is styled expressly, a 
" hodif* of theology. The prescribed order, too, of the 
procession is no less conformable; and this, of course, 
whether viewed in the full expansion of the three Cycles, 
or on the minor scale of any one in particular. Thus, to 
take the ampler instance, the religions of the Heathen era 
abounded in divinities, but had no doctrines and but few 
rites; in the second or Christian epoch, the rites attained 
predominance, producing on the one hand a nucleus of 
doctrine (the Bible, Koran, tVc), and on the other propor- 
tionally reducing the divinities, at first in point of rank, and 
at last in point of number. So, no doubt, in the coming 
era, the rites in turn will be merged in doctrines, a ten- 
dency far already on its way. And as to the divinities 
. . . ; but that the future must disclose. Enough for 
the day (that is, in this case, the Mythological Cycle) are 
the evils, in flict the devils, thereof. 



DIYmiTIES. 

§ 119. It was shown that man must interpret always the 
phenomena of external nature in analogy to the principle 
of action, predominant in his present consciousness. Also 
that this principle, must have been, in the primary Cycle, 
the dim agency of animal life, in its manifestation of Force. 



MYTIJOLOGIGAL CYCLIC. 313 

Force would tlicn bo tl)(3 jjiirric atlriljutc of (](;ify irj tljosc 
early ygoK. It is accordingly iIjc general cljaracter of the 
godw of Jleallienism. 

Jiiit an tlie forces of nature must all affect men, in a 
twofold and oppctsile manner, must cause them either suf- 
fering or pleasure ; the corresponding divinities would be 
classilied accordirrgly into two universal categories of evil 
and good. This grand bisection is attested in fact, by all 
history and tradition. In all mature mythologies there 
are "evil and good" genii, demons and angels; the stars 
tliernselves are evil or good, malignant or benign. In 
short, all the world over, whatever gave man pain or plea- 
sure, before }j(i learned the Uou), the means, of any effect, 
was forth with rjecessarily deemed a devil or a god. Thus 
the Ilirjdoos, up to this day, adore and sacrifice to their 
tools of trade, the farmer to his plough, tlie tailor to his 
needles, th..- barber to his razors ; the very manure-heap 
is made a god, as being instrumental in producing food. 
And had not even the civilized Romans a temple to Cloa- 
cina'/ 

Of these two classes, however, the Evil must, for rea- 
sorjs before explained (§ 48) have been the earlier in pos- 
session of the earth. The powers of Good, as long as spon- 
taneous, must have remained unrecognized ; they only 
came to be discerned when embodied artificially, as in 
the irnjdements of use and industry just alluded to. But 
along this line the creation multiplied, re[)ulsing gradually 
the powers of evil, until it reached that implement of im- 
plements, the social system ; where accordingly the leaders 
of the two embattled hosts are found to represent the eriual 
strife, by open c<jmbat. To these few regulative remarks 
which serve, moreover, U) show already the pervading pre- 
sence, in the sphere of Religion, of our second and third 
axioms (the forms of mathematics and principles of con- 
ception), I will add the remaining test, which though in- 
cluded in both the others, presents a scale of nicer scrutiny 
than either, and lies in indicating the progression from the 
least Abstract, up to the most. 

§ 120. To inquire what was the earliest divinity of the 
primitive man, is therefore to consider what was the least 
abstract, or most general and obvious, as well as fear-in- 
spiring among natural phenomena. This, I conceive, wai 
27* 



314 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

darkness or night. Its recurrence deprived the savage of the 
power to provide food, while it exposed him to be surprised 
by beasts of prey. It also afflicted his nudity with a sud- 
den cold in most climates. Above all, it struck his infant 
imagination with a terror which the intermittent reap- 
pearance would not suffer habit to compose, as seemin'g ^ 
to destroy, to devour the objects and earth itself around 
him. 

Hence accordingly, the tradition of Greek and all Ori- 
ental theogenies, that " primeval night" was the mother of 
the gods. The same belief precisely prevails in the South 
Sea islands at this day. I am not aware that the like is re- 
ported of our own savages in express terms. But I detect 
it in one of the most remarkable of their traditions. This 
is, that their race originally came from the womb of the 
earth. Now here is the womb of night, with a very natural 
variation. And what puts the notion beyond accident is that, 
on the continent of ancient Europe, we find the Gauls 
giving to Caesar the same account of their ancestral origin, 
as taught them by their priests, the Druids. It may be worth 
adding, even for its own sake, that the sentiment in ques- 
tion is also witnessed in a less ambiguous department of 
experience. It caused the practice of computing time by 
nights, rather than days ; a fact either customary in the 
actual life, or commemorated in the language, of every peo- 
ple of the earth, without, I think, a single exception. 

Both principle and explanation are further still con- 
firmed by the kindred usage of counting the annual revolu- 
tion by winters. For the effects of this harsh season on 
the unprovided savage, were quite analogous to those at- 
tributed to the night. Even the day of dreary winter, not 
to mention its incidental prolongation of nocturnal darkness 
and danger, seemed but a clearer sort of night, compared 
with the gladness, the glare, the glory of summer. The 
usage accordingly continues a practice among the Ameri- 
can Indians. But it has long passed, among the socialized 
Persians, into the theological story about the contests of 
Oromasdes and Ahriman, or the two principles, above re- 
ferred to, of Good and Evil; for these famous personages 
are proved by Dupuis to have been mythical representa- 
tions of the summer season of production, and the winter 
season of destruction and desolation. So, in fine, the old 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE, 315 

Scandinavian goddess, Maryana, wliose image was thrown 
in the river at the opening of spring, was the deity at once 
o^ winter, o? darkness, and of death. And all this, I con- 
clude, because night and winter, the latter in a less degree, 
were the most concrete, simple, and general of the causes 
of man's early sufferings. A result quite concurrent with 
the rule so often repeated, that the events men usually 
date from, and first demonify, are their calamities. 

So true is it, as the Epicurians alleged, that Fear 
made the earliest gods. Only it should have been added, 
that the gods thus made, were all Evil ; and moreover 
that the evil did not all precede the Good, but only rela- 
tively to the same order of natural phenomena. In other 
words, these ancient philosophers very excusably over- 
looked, in theology, what their latest successors are still ig- 
norant of, in even the positive sphere of science, I mean a 
scale of progression in all creation, and consequently in all 
conception. Having thus established the general bi-parti- 
tion of the pantheon, and exemplified the relative order 
among the special sections of both divisions, I must hence- 
forth leave these two distinctions to be followed by the read- 
er, and abridge the illustration, without formal reference 
to quality, to the gross aggregates of these divinities, in 
their successive formations ; and to this succession in only 
the threefold Generic divisions of the cosmical scale, (ch. 2) 
of whose positive Laws, at the stage of Quality, these be- 
ings were all the alleged embodiments. 

§ 121. Thedivision was into Inorganic, Organic, and So- 
cial. Do the divinities of the first Cycle, as known from his- 
tory or observation, conform both in character and series ? 

In the first or Inorganic order we have just established 
the instance of Night; a phenomenon at once the earliest 
incontestably of all divinities, and so effectually unorgan- 
ized as to be not even a body at all. And to this suc- 
ceeded winter, with its sundry afflictive forces ; all of 
which, when finally imputed to the heavenly bodies, to- 
wards the advent of the Agi'icultural state, compose the 
primary system of worship thence denominated Sabeisra. 
For all the objects, or as they are vaguely called " Ele- 
ments," of this primeval system, belong evidently, at least, 
in relation to human perception, to the inorganic order of 
phenomena. 



316 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Meanwhile the counter-formation of beneficent divini- 
ties would have long commenced, and necessarily in the 
organic department ; necessarily, this quality being essen- 
tial to human food, and the object of man's food, of his 
first good, being thus his gods. But though the objects 
be organized, themselves, they belonged virtually to the 
simpler category as long as the lahour in procuring them 
was unorganized, unartificial. It was said above that such 
objects were deified, but in discerning their use as instru- 
ments, that is to say, as results of art. It should have been 
added, that accident has a similar effect. When benefits 
grow precarious, to find one we still call a " god-send." In 
fact with all men, whether savage or civilized, the limit of 
the unexpected is the real measure of their thankfulness. 
So that from the scarcity of the means of subsistence, de- 
scribed in the preceding chapter, as having driven men 
from one to the other of the three prge-social states, there 
should have arisen a corresponding batch of divinities. Let 
our principles be then submitted to this surely trying test. 

The food in the first of these states, was shown to be 
fruits, roots, and fish. The latter, no doubt, when casually 
cast upon the beach, and so a spontaneous production of 
the water, as the others were of the earth. Thus we are 
told, by Hereon, of some wretched savages on the Arabian 
Gulf, who, to this day subsist exclusively in this manner, 
and have never learned to use a net or any other fish- 
ing implement. Such would, therefore, be the good gods 
of the first or Inorganic dynasty. Quite accordingly, we 
find the acorn worship in the Druid sanctity of the oak ; 
the root gods, in the leek and onion worship of ancient 
Egypt, and at this day, the forest tribes of Hindostan, 
above referred to, pay divine honours to a large root which 
forms the staple of their food. In fine, our own North 
American savages offered sacrifices to the Indian corn. 
As to fish, it is found adored devoutly on the one hand, by 
the Mantans, the rudest tribes of savages along the sea- 
board of the South Pacific ; and, at the opposite side of 
the globe, who has not heard of the " fish-god" Dagon : — 

" Who had his temple high, 

Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 

Of Palestine, in Gath and Asealon, 

And Acaron and Gaza's frontier bound." 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 3l7 

The critical reader will observe a discrepancy between 
the term " dreaded" and the alleged goodness of the gods in 
question. But he must remember that Milton was as pious 
or at least as poetical as he was learned, and shows the Chris- 
tian and Jewish horror of the gods of all other nations. Ac- 
cordingly, the tradition of the worshippers themselves 
is, that Dagon was wont to come forth from the Red 
Sea to supply food to their ancestors, and instruct them in 
the arts of civil life. I will only add the similar reminis- 
cence of the still older nations of Hindostan, symbolized 
in the first incarnation of the beneficent Vishnu into a 
fish. 

§ 122. I now pass to the next formation, which com- 
mences with the Hunter state, and relates to the region of 
nature more distinctly Organic, both as to the constitution 
of the objects and the contrivance to procure them. Here 
the things to be feared or venerated were chiefly of the 
animal kind. And so in fact, in most tropical countries, 
the lion, tiger, crocodile, and above all the serpent have 
been erected into divinities ; that is to say the animals 
most irresistibly destructive, by force or by venom, to man 
himself or his means of subsistence. Among the good 
genii on the other hand, the American Indians revere the 
deer and the bear, their favorite articles of food. The 
bear, however, perhaps for the reason, besides its palata- 
ble flesh, that it first taught them, they say, to kill the deer, 
that is to say, was their inductor into the hunter state. A 
striking testimony to the timid bloodlessness above attri- 
buted to the primitive man (§ 106), and which is symbol- 
ized in short into a theological dogma by the myriad wor- 
shippers of Brahma. 

The next sub-stage of this Organic formation coin- 
cides with the shepherd state. This condition was defined 
to consist in the domestication and breeding of animals. 
We need no longer wonder, then, to find the ram, buck, 
goat, and bull remain prominent among the gods of the 
whole oriental world ; and, on the other hand, to find them 
absent throughout the occidental world, where, for want 
of due development or suitable animals or for geographical 
causes, the multitudinous nations appear to have known 
no shepherd state. For the former I refer to India, and espe- 
cially to Egypt, which offers a complete pantheon of the 



818 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Mythological Cycle. In fact, the three animals enume- 
rated by a transmutation to be after explained, came at 
last to symbolize the supreme trinity of Egyptian theology, 
namely, Jupiter Ammon, Kneph, and Osiris. I say the su- 
preme ; for it is known there were several subordinate ones, 
appropriate to particular districts, cities and even epochs. 
But that this was the highest Egyptian generalization of 
the tri-une principle is proved by these unquestionable 
facts : that the worship of those three deities alone was 
common throughout all Egypt ; that each predominated 
at successive eras of the aggregate civilization; and, what 
is still more characteristic, that their respective origin is 
referred by tradition to the three progressive seats of that 
civilization, along the Nile — that of Kneph to Nubia, of 
Ammon to the Thebaid, and of Osiris to Lower Egypt. 
Of this view, which is widely at variance with the reigning 
confusion upon the subject, something farther may be said 
under the proper head of Doctrines. The j^urpose here 
was but to prove the literal worship of those three animal 
staples of the Shepherd state; for otherwise we shall see 
they could not have been symbols of the hero divinities of 
the succeeding and Social formation. 

Before quitting this second dynasty — whose collective 
worship I name Fetitchism — there is a general objection 
which it may be proper to obviate. The unthinking may 
scout the principle that even the rudest savage could have 
been so profanely stupid as to feed upon what he wor- 
shipped. But this would be to overlook that, in the most 
enlightened nations of our nineteenth century, the mother 
sect of Christianity does exactly the same thing literally, 
and all the affiliated denominations, by symbol. Nay they 
aggravate the oddity, if we consider it. For the savage 
only worships his god in consequence of having eaten him ; 
the Christian or Catholic eats him in consequence of 
having worshipped ! Nay, the coincidence is a positive 
confirmation of my principle ; at least, if there be truth in 
the divine saying of the Gospel, that men must always, in 
matters of religion, be " like unto little children." And in 
fact, it needs no inspiration to see that, in other matters 
too, they are for the most part (the varnish and vices drawn 
aside) not so different as is commonly thought from the 
rude children of nature. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 319 

§ 123. The investigation is now arrived at the stage of 
Humanity named the Agricultural,and which was represent- 
ed as at once terminating the savage and initiating the Social 
epoch. Here the hopes and fears of man became attached 
to the soil. The earth was the universal feeder, breeder, 
mother of mankind. Heat and moisture, however, were 
soon observed to be the prolific powers, and seen to come 
from above, even like the demons of hail and snow and thun- 
der. What other could be the source, the bestower of these 
genial blessings than these sublime bodies which soar or 
circulate, in that direction, at such seasons; themselves 
serenely superior to mortal change or suffering, yet look- 
ing down upon man mysteriously, brightly, benignly ? 
The stars, and chiefly the planets, were, then, the next 
family of good divinities. This, indeed, was a transmuta- 
tion of their originally evil character. But this is just 
what the theory requires. It is the convolution novv so 
familiar to us in the final term of the triad. It is in this 
case the very process, through ignorance of which the 
mythologists are led to fluctuate so variously in their ac- 
counts of Sabeism : some making it the earliest of all the 
forms of worship ; others making it the latest of the 
heathen religions ; and others still, or perhaps the same 
writers, representing it as both at once. The last opinion is 
the true one ; but in a widely different sense. It is not 
that the rehgion remains the same throughout. From the 
Elemental to the Astral stage it was but the substrate of 
the two Organic developments; even as we saw Sensation 
the general substrate of Memory which retains, and of 
Imagination which systematizes, its results. To complete 
the system of our Divinities, however, there remained 
another step. With some experience in Agriculture, the 
rains and dews as well as heat would be dimly seen to be 
due to the sun alone. The sun was, then, the supreme 
deity; but in conjunction still with the Earth— this dual- 
ism, active and receptive, being seen to be essential in man 
himself (the eternal type in all things) for reproduction. 
Beyond this " marriage of the earth and sky" popular 
imagination could not go : it was, therefore, the arch 
which closed the theogony proper of the primary or phy- 
sical Cycle. 

§ 124. To this rapid analysis of the general objects of 



S20 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Nature-worship, there still presents itself an apparent ex- 
ception ; and one to which the requisite answer will eco- 
nomically introduce us to the epoch of Man- worship or 
theism. 

It will be wondered how man should thus, for innu- 
merable ages, have been imagining all the objects of the 
physical world, inanimate as well as animate, to be divine 
except himself. How inconsistent, it may be urged, with 
the conceit which leads him later to claim, on the contrary, 
that he alone is divine amid the same world. But this 
seeming contrariety is a real and deep consistency. It was 
demonstrated that the human mind, in the progress of con- 
ception, must proceed invariably from the known to the 
unknown — the same in the iiTiagination of divinities as in 
the induction of sciences. Also that he was himself the 
early type of the Known. But while thus \\\q principle of 
conception, he could not possibly become its ohject ; as 
the eye, which sees all beside, cannot naturally see itself. 
Besides he did not make divinities of what he knew or 
even thought he knew ; so far otherwise it is his growing 
knowledge that unmade them. He divinified, on the con- 
trary, the things he did not know, and precisely because 
he did not know them ; the objects of which he felt the 
influence without being able to perceive the cause. In di- 
rect proportion, therefore, to his ignorance, or rather to 
the divergence of the phenomena from the narrow range 
of his primitive consciousness, of his animal sympathies, 
must the process of divinification have commenced and 
progressed. And this is what has been just confirmed by 
our historical induction. 

So strictly is the principle true, indeed, that even 
among the lower animals, the creatures bordering in exter- 
nal resemblance upon man appear to have never received 
divine honours at all. For I question that the ape has 
been ever distinctly made a fetitche; notwithstanding its 
enumeration in some of the Eastern mythologies, or rather 
the farragos so entitled, by their tenth-hand compilers. If 
at all, it must have happened either in the more divergent 
and monkey species, or upon a different principle, to be 
presently discussed. The Ourang or Chimpanzee could 
not possibly be so regarded. Men would find them too 
like themselves to be fit for any thing divine. In conclu- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 321 

sion, then, it was not till man, by this progressive elimi- 
nation of all he holds in common with the lower grades of 
the scale, came to consider his SAfferential characteristic, 
that he could have dreamt of divinifying his own species. 
And he did so even then, because he became " a mystery 
to himself," The characteristic thus evolved was incom- 
prehensible, because peculiar. And because it seemed 
peculiar, it must be something mysterious, and appearing 
to be mysterious it was deemed, of course, divine. (1) It 
was, however, but the metaphysical principle of the new 
Cycle, the human Will. 

§ 125. The development of the will was reciprocally 
cause and consequence of the social relations which we 
saw arise on the foundation of agriculture. These re- 
lations require the exercise of calculation and contrivance ; 
the application of means to an end — of which the con- 
scious capability is the entity v/e name Will. Of these 
things, experience would in time make manifest the bene- 
ficent effects. The food and shelter before precarious, 
according to season or accident, were now perceived to be 
much more permanent and plentiful. The power or 
protection against enemies, measured heretofore by brute 
force, was seen to be multiplied, as if miraculously, by so- 
cial arts and skill. In short what men had been used, for 
ages, to solicit, or to deprecate, from their good or evil 
genii in vain, was seen to be procured or prevented by 
the foresight, the contrivance, the providence or good will 
of Society. I say of society ; for a principle, thus supe- 
rior to divinities, could not, for ages yet, be attributed to 
despot-ridden individuals. The intellect was not suf- 
ficiently versed in expedients, the range of alternatives 
not sufficiently diversified, in a v/ord the Will not suf- 
ficiently developed, for men to imagine it w^hat they call 
" free." The proof is, that this chimera, though the pue- 
rile puzzle of all modern metaphysicians, has scarce been 
ever broached in the speculations of antiquity, even by the 
all-discussing philosophy of Greece. 

But what was not active enough in each to turn inward 
upon himself the reflection of men accustomed to look but 

(1) Omne ignotum pro mirifico^ was the remark of one accustom- 
ed to look below the surface of his species. 
28 



322 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

outward and through the eyes, was referred, dimly, to the 
external and collective body of the state. For the state 
was then regarded as a mass, not an association ; the citi- 
zen, a fragment, not an element. And hence in fact, the 
truism, so much repeated and little understood : that in the 
governments of antiquity, the society was every thing, the 
subject or citizen nothing. Hence, too, that blind devo- 
tion to the prince or the republic, which was really another 
consequence of the same crassitude in the people; although 
the priests styled it piety, and the politicians patriotism, 
and the pedants of our own day repeat these interested 
platitudes, contrasting them with the degenerate insubordi- 
nation of modern times. For it is still in this theological 
or topsy-turvey fashion that history is written and men 
and ages are judged ! 

Not however, that such devotion was not, in my opin- 
ion, right in fact ; it is the doctrine now established, on the 
subject, in these pages. And the ancient fact bears a pro- 
found testimony to the truth of the new theory, according 
to the axiom that the primary form of all progressive in- 
stitutions must be that of their last perfection, but upon an 
opposite principle. And the reason of this rule is cogent, 
namely, that there is but a single form (our threefold ma- 
thematical formulae); which only repeats itself accumula- 
itively from first to last : so that scien';e itself is no more 
than instinct enlarged and systematized. But while thus 
laudable in fact, the patriotism of the physical Cycle was, 
in motive, but an impotent divinification of Society. And 
as, through the popular necessity to personify and individ- 
ualize the uncomprehended operations of a complex sys- 
tem, the success of a battle or the salvation of a country is 
even still ascribed to the general or to the minister alone ; 
how much more necessarily would these extraordinary 
manifestations of social energy be embodied, by barbarous 
ages, in the individuals who conducted them, in the patri- 
arch, the king, or the lawgiver. Hence the order of divi- 
nities which I term human or Social. 

The deification, however, could not I think have taken 
place during life. The Roman emperors, though wielding 
the absolute power of a world, could extort but the hol- 
low title from even the populace of their slaves. Nor did 
the much more barbarous subjects of the Peruvian Inca 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 



321 



and his patriarchal compeers deem them more, we saw, than 
the sons of a god. The disqualification of theOurang it seems 
could be obliterated by no achievements, as long as the actor 
remained visible in the common flesh of the vulgar multi- 
tude. For the ignorant of all ages judge of men but by • 
externals : thus are they ruled by barbaric splendour, in the 
Oriental world ; and in the Western, if you would win 
them, there are only two things needful — a tailor for the 
body, and a theologian for the soul. Even this, however, 
can but lift one into a Gentleman and a Christian; 
and the interval to godship remained considerable. So 
that with the ancient barbarians, to pass a mortal into a 
god, he must have first put off the whole " coil," alike the 
natural and artificial, find be removed from physical con- 
tact in shape, in place, in time ; in something in short 
which shall at the same time mystify his humanity and 
magnify his merits to the crude imagination of the epoch. 
The same imagination will of course require that the 
new abode be both visible and venerable. The removal 
is accomplished by death, that coarse alembic of human 
greatness, which, like the multitude who speak its dictates, 
recognizes no other elements than the pure evil or the pure 
good which men have done. In the latter case the remain- 
ing exigence was to find the spirit of the departed Hero, 
thus defaecated of the man, an abode or shrine of the qual- 
ities specified, a concrete embodiment to satisfy the popu- 
lar sentiment, according as he retired and rose, from a spi- 
rit, into a tradition and then a myth. 

§ 126. Now a full series of such receptacles, with just 
the requisite conditions, stood prepared in the preceding 
divinities, mechanical, vegetable, animal. For the corres- 
ponding objects of nature could no longer be deemed di- 
vine themselves. Brute force, we have seen, had ceased 
with the close of the Physical Cycle, to be a sufficient test 
of a god. The criterion now was providence or will. 
But as the will of the social benefactor had disappeared in 
the flesh, and the beneficial properties or singular powers 
of the animals or vegetables before divinified remained, it 
was a perfectly natural conclusion, whether of the popu- 
lace themselves or the priests, that the old habitual gods 
were still the organ or abode through which now operated 
the powerful and providential will of their father Abraham, 



324 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

or their patron St. Denis or their Lord Osiris. What I have 
been tracing thus analytically may be summecl up in a short 
statement, now a truism among philosophical mythologists, 
namely, that the Fetitchistic worship, from being literal in 
the Mythological Cycle, came, in the following or Meta- 
physical, to be symbolical. 

This new transformation must, of course, like the first 
creation, commence with the simplest terms of the series 
or the Inorganic. Of those receptacles of the deified 
spirit or symbolical objects of hero-worship, the first in 
order was therefore the grave, where the body had been 
reposited : for by this fact it was made sacred, and the 
qualification thus supplied which the organic objects had 
enjoyed from their preceding divinification. Or rather it 
was less the grave, than the tumulus which rose above it j 
usually containing a furnished chamber to receive the de- 
parted as in life ; and presenting exteriorly an elevation 
sufficiently conspicuous to meetfhabitually, the eye of the 
surrounding votaries. As the tribes consolidated into a 
nation, and the city widened into an empire, the tomb of 
the tutelary deity advanced in due proportion, to the im- 
posing altitude of the pyramid and the mystical intricacy 
of the labyrintli. The progression was above delineated, 
in the article on architecture. And this constant consist- 
ency of the theory, from points of view so heterogeneous, 
will not, I trust, escape the reader's attention and appre- 
ciation. 

§ 127. To the inert receptacle of inorganic matter suc- 
ceeded the Organic and animate. The growing conscious- 
ness of volitional energy in the worshippers themselves 
would evidently demand this change in order to uphold the 
illusive analogy. Things perpetually motionless or moving 
but monotonously could not long continue to be thought in- 
formed with a power so active and wayward as will. The 
benevolent will in question, or malevolent as the case 
might be, was therefore transferred, insensibly, to the ob- 
jects next in order, both of mythological deification and of 
logical complexity. These it will be remembered were 
first vegetables, from grasses up to trees ; and then the va- 
rious animal species, in a like progression. For historical 
examples of all this I refer to any or all the books on the 
subject. I do not write to repeat others, in even the com- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 325 

men property of facts ; but to show, where others omit it, 
how their erudition may be understood. To this some- 
what rarer purpose I will then suggest another reason 
why the vegetable class of receptacles should precede the 
animal ; our great object being the illustration of the law 
and series of progression. 

The doubt, the infidelity that undivinified the monu- 
ment, arose not only from its immobility, but also its de- 
cay. Now in this respect especially, the plant allured, bv 
a striking contrast, in its annual revirescence and resur- 
rection from transient death ; while the animals, on the 
other hand, offered nothing of the kind. Here then was a 
signal ground of preference, of precedence. For what 
receptacle so suitable for the abode of an immortal spirit ? 
And how conclusive must not the analogy have appeared 
to these rude barbarians, when we find it insinuated bv 
such writers as Butler, down almost to our own day, as an 
argument for the immortality of the soul ! But this would 
after be exchanged in turn for the more real advantage of 
locomotion in the animal ; which better imaged the sponta- 
niety of the divine will within. Ancient Egypt may be 
referred to as the most notable scene, and a complete gal- 
lery, or rather green-house and menagerie of both de- 
scriptions. This singular and sand-insulated country — 
this great oasis in ethnography as well as geography — was 
left, alone perhaps of all the nations of history, undisturbed 
by foreign gods, to follow down the Fetichistic system 
from the literal and physical, in its transition to the se- 
condary and symbolical, formation. That the latter, was 
the true character of the national worship at the decline 
of the empire, we have the positive assurance of the 
priests themselves, from Herodotus, Diodorus, and others. 
And to this may now be added the foregoing explanatory 
demonstration. 

§ 128. But, aside from this, the fact were proved by 
the mere event of the decline alluded to. The things were 
concomitant of effects of the same cause. The civilization 
of Egypt was exhausted; she had no more receptacles or 
envelopes for her gods. Her fall had become inevitable, 
by the advent of the Metaphysical Cycle, though no Cam- 
byses or Alexander or Caesar had ever lived. Indeed all 
such are but the vultures that scent the carcass at a dis- 
28* 



326 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

tance. Why did not youthful Rome fall by the sack of 
Brennus or the slaughter of Hannibal 1 Why not, the 
little states of Greece, beneath the myriad hosts of Xerxes ? 
or modern France, by the power of the holy alliances ? 
Because these nations possessed at the time — or rather 
were possessed by — an idea, contained the germ of a civili- 
zation, had a principle of vigorous vitality in harmony 
with the coming epoch : and no nation, or even individual, 
possessed of such a spirit, has ever yet been crushed 
irretrievably. But Egypt, at the time in question, was in 
the opposite predicament ; as Rome and Greece became 
afterwards, in turn. Her thread of development was 
spent. She had groped for the laws of man's nature in 
the phenomena of the external world ; first in the princi- 
pal Objects progressively, and then in the principal Pro- 
perties of these objects. The conception of Relation, that 
is to say of law, she could not attain to without recommenc- 
ing the process of generalization on the opposite basis of 
Man himself This she was able to prosecute, so long as 
the type of the new era, the clement of Will, could find 
analogous expression, or hypostatical embodiment, in the 
pre-established series of divinities. For so far did her 
procedure on the basis of physical nature involve the cor- 
responding attributes of man. But these being all eli- 
minated, by tlie processes just described, the differential 
character alone remained, with which she knew not what 
to do. And besides, consistency forbade her to go beyond 
that divine series — meaning by consistency the orthodoxy 
and conservatism of the priests. Egypt, therefore, fell I 
repeat, for want of a suitable habitation for the mystical 
reception of her Hero-divinities. Or to speak (as Homer 
has it) in the language of men, the mind, the contrivance, 
the aspirations of the nation were now developed to that 
measure of abstractness, when Imagination fails to find 
them symbols from among the creations of nature, and 
Intellect cannot yet fashion them by the creations of art. 

The latter attempt, however, was made by Egypt, 
before expiring ; and nothing could be more characteristic 
of the direction of the pressure, and also of the doctrine of 
the present theory. The result, before alluded to, was the 
mere Numeral agglomeration of the heads, wings, &c., of 
various animals upon the human body, or the multiplica- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 327 

tion of the limbs and oilier parts, such as the breasts in the 
Diana ; then the Quantification into colossi of the natural 
figure, reposing in the infant stage of mere architectural 
appendage : the final or Figured term is presented in the 
Sphinx ; which is accordingly the monogram of Egypt's 
civilization, and that of ancient humanity generally, in 
stone. This renowned figure consists of the body of a 
lion with the head of a woman. It combines then the two 
most perfect emblems in nature, of animal fprcc and of 
moral expression. It is Liberty evolving itself from Power, 
It is Cunning escaping from Force. It is the Metaphysi- 
cal Cycle emerging fiom out the Physical. It is, in short. 
Humanity extricating itself from Brutality, and silently 
beseeching time to be shown the road to Reason. This 
was the real riddle of the Egyptian Spliinx ; whatever 
may have been the conscious design of the authors, or the 
idle conjectures of subsequent speculation. 

§ 129. The enigma found an Oedipus, in fact as well 
as fable, in Greece, who answered the entreaty by her 
arts and her philosophy. The embodiment of these Hero- 
gods, which Egy])t had been coarsely imagining in a bull 
and a cow, and symbolizing by an owl or a lotus, was sup- 
plied in the Jupiter of Phidias and the Venus of Praxi- 
teles; in the awful or enchanting presence of which imagi- 
nation knelt again, and owned its utmost ideal of deity, in 
the active and passive attributes, there enthroned in the 
organic energy and natural compass of the human form. 

And here I may remark the theory has not only un- 
riddled even the Sphinx, but, in doing so, explained spon- 
taneously a fact to this day as enigmatical ; I mean the unri- 
valled pre-eminence of Grecian art. The reason is quite 
simple ; like all reasons when well understood. The arts, 
before and after, were respectively directed to the imita- 
tion of nature and the expression of man. In Greece 
alone, the direct, urgent, and so to say utilitarian purpose 
was the creation of gods. With the enthusiasm, the inspi- 
ration of this supernatural aim, what wonder that the 
results have been almost preeter-human 1 It was a paitial 
recurrence of the same situation, on the analogous declivi- 
ty of the succeeding Cycle, that gave the schools of paint- 
ing of the fifteenth century a similar pre-eminence. 

But we have here to do with Greek arts as supplying 



328 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

a new order of idols, and thus enabling the human mind 
to proceed with its generalizations, until the rude analysis 
again end in a supreme unity of design. This curious 
march I have no space to follow farther; and can merely 
add that it produced the divine dynasty I term Social ; 
that this consisted partly of the *' polytheism" of classic 
antiquity, but partly also of the subsequent and consequent 
monotheisms; and that such is my authority for compris- 
ing the wjiole system under the appellation of Theism, 
meaning worship of the attributes of Man, in distinction 
from Fetitchism and Sabeism, which constitute, in fact, 
analogous aspects of the worship of Nature. I add that 
hero-worship, in the Polytheistic and ascending and analytic 
phase, attained its unity in the to ev, the one god, of Py- 
thagoras ; and probably earlier but also vaguer, in the 
"holy one" of the Jewish Bible; the term holy importing 
precisely this collective individuality. 

Thus far for the divinities. Now a glance at the 



EITES. 

§ 130. Upon this department, as also the subsequent 
article of Doctrines, we may now (and in fact mtist) be 
more concise; having graduated, in analyzing the divini- 
ties to whom both topics of course related — their common 
scale of characterization as well as progression. Of 
Rites, too, therefore, the division would be threefold. And 
history tells us accordingly of Sacrifice, Ceremony, and 
Prayer, which comprise, I think, the entire ritual of all 
the religions of mankind. 

The correspondence to the divinities is equally con- 
clusive, in the points of succession and similitude. The 
material gifts of Sacrifice, the products of the earth, could 
alone be supposed to appease the jirimary gods of Evil 
and Force. In the next place Ceremonies, which were 
still a half physical product of man's labour, were deemed 
sufficient for the beneficent and later genii ; for the absurd- 
ity of supposing that goodness need be bribed to its own 
gratification, could never enter the head of a savage : but 
if the good divinities require no sacrifices, their ministers 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 329 

require support, and hence the logical confusion and the 
blasphemous calumny, upon which it would be easy and 
instructive to expatiate. As to the appropriateness of the 
third remedy, or " Prayer and humiliation," we know it is 
just the thing for the despot-deity of Will. 

IJut again, these offerings must each be adapted, in 
their specific forms, to the several orders of Divinities. 
This it may be best to illustrate in the aspect of method ; 
which, like other principles of the theory, though pervad- 
ing every page of the book, are too apt to be deemed de- 
faulting when not constantly kept in sight. The adapta- 
tion, in question, then must have proceeded, like all other 
conceptions, upon the three inductive bases of Resem- 
blance, Difference, and composite Uniformity. An ex- 
ample or two of each. In fact, to the Inorganic or 
elemental gods the habitual offerings were altars, images, 
temples, etc.; to the Organic or animal and vegetable, the 
sacrifices were fruits and animals ; to the Social divi- 
nities, the victims were human. The first class are scarce 
recorded, save in the rude constructions of still savage 
countries ; the second is the double character of the earliest 
sacrifice in Jewish story ; finally, human sacrifices have 
been the constant attendant upon hero-worship, even 
down to its commencement in the agricultural condition 
of subsisting by industrial pursuits. For these pursuits 
revealed a new principle of value in man, which should 
enhance, of course, his propitiative virtue as a victim. 
The latter result will be confirmed, if the reader bear 
in mind that it was also the foundation of society that 
gave establishment to the priesthood ; who were, it is 
known, the professional executioners of those days, and 
who are, in all days, too full of the aflatus of divinity to 
have place for humanity in their hearts. 

§ 131. I add a still more specific sample of the method 
of Resemblance, to assure the reader who must be left to 
verify, himself, the two correlative forms. We are told of 
tribes of savages along the western lakes, who used to 
fashion scraps of dough into the shape of Willc fishes, and 
cast them into the water to piopitiate the wary inmates. 
True, I have said that such as these, being good divinities, 
would be thought to ask no offerings : but mark the turn 
of the Indian's thought; the notion was to win the real fishes 



330 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

from committing the privative "evil" of omitting to come 
forth and be taken and eaten by the said Indians. I beg 
close attention to this concrete confusion of the two forms, 
both here and in all the other transitional stages of the appli- 
cation. But to the point before us I remember a still more 
singular instance ; and one besides which, goes quite back 
to the Inorganic class of divinities. Garcilasso de la Vega 
tells of a Peruvian population who paid worship to an 
emerald of extraordinary size. So far there was nothing, 
you will say, which would not be done any day by the 
civilized and profane population of Wall-street. But the 
historian goes on to add, that the savage votaries " were 
accustomed to make it sacrifices of the smaller and or- 
dinary emeralds ; the priests [of course] telling the people 
that these offerings of the smaller emeralds — which were 
tlie cliildrcn of the great one — were the presents most agree- 
able to the goddess." Without deeming it necessary to 
suggest what after became of those precious victims, I will 
only invite reflection upon the notion of* offsjJYing, the sac- 
rifice of the child to the parent, which has played a curious 
but characteristic part in all the stages of Religion. 

It is the old principle of generation, with the modifica- 
tion, above remarked, of sacrificial enhancement. Thus 
from the numerous offspring of the emerald it passes up- 
ward to an 07dy child ; and this a daughter, as in the sacri- 
fice of Ijihigenia by Agamemnon ; then a son, as in the sacri- 
fice of Isaac by Abraham ; in which case it was added, by a 
refinement peculiarly Jewish, that the Father of the Faith- 
ful had at the time outlived thefacully of again becoming 
father in the flesh. What was there beyond this whereby 
men could hope to deprecate the evil passion of anger in 
their gods ? Evidently nothing in humanity or on earth ; 
and the sole remaining resort could have been the sacri- 
fice of a god. But this ultimatum of the progression in- 
volved these necessary consequences : that such sacrifice 
should be hy a god (not of course, by men) ; to a god (not 
to men) ; and this god, the ^Mr^w/ of the divine victim 
(not any co-equal divinity) ; and the victim offered ybr all 
mankind (not for a particular expedition, or family, or peo- 
ple) ; and in fine the offering made to appease the anger 
o?\he very god, who was himself at once the mahcr and re- 
ceiver, and all on hehalf of the human sinner who was the 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 331- 

ohject of the indignation ! Here is an imbroglio which 
even a Rabbinical imagination could not pass beyond. It 
characterizes the theological culmination of the Meta- 
physical Cycle. Accordingly it had its analytic parallel 
at the summit of the previous Cycle, in the custom, gen- 
eral among the superior gods, of intermarrying with their 
mothers and sisters. So that there is a logical necessity to 
excuse this heathen amalgamation, which gives to Chris- 
tian mythologists at once such exultation and scandal ; as 
if the example had not been set in the pious family of Adam. 
In fine, then, if it were true that Sacrifices had ceased 
with the advent of Christ, there would, we see, have been 
reason, as well as revelation, for the event. But I must 
here dismiss not only the methodic form of resemblance in 
Sacrifices, but also those of Difference and Uniformity en- 
tirely undiscussed. And not merely these, but the two 
complementary departments of Rites ; over which all three 
methodic forms have passed of course in like pi'ocession. 
My historical application of all this would make perhaps the 
most curious part of the volume. But I am drawing to a 
close, and there are several topics, still more urgent. I 
am henceforth, therefore, obliged, on this subject, to take 
a meagre abstract from the manuscript. And I cannot ex- 
cept the article where I regret the mutilation most, name- 
ly, the third and last of our general divisions, the most im- 
portant head of 



DOCTEmES. 

§ 132. This article turns wholly on the spiritual land 
above alluded to, or a future state of human existence. 

It is commonly assumed that this notion of post mortem 
existence could only be derived through a revelation from 
heaven. The present theory teaches, on the contrary, 
that a revelation had been much more requisite to destroy 
(were this desirable) its innate germ in the living being. 
Man, we have seen, had to pass through a myriad of gen- 
erations before gaining an abstract conception of his own 
or any other existence. But before clearly conceiving this 
abstract existence, it was impossible that he should ima- 



332 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

gine its absolute cessation. The negative always proceeds 
upon, and never precedes the positive. Now the positive 
in this instance was the personal existence here. And be- 
fore reaching the idea of its own future non-existence, it 
was necessary that the primitive mind should eliminate 
successively the entire series of physical phenomena ; ac- 
cording to the same logical law of procedure, from the 
Concrete to the Abstract, which we saw regulate the gen- 
eral progression not only of sciences and arts, but also the 
creation of Divinities, and the adaptation of their respec- 
tive Rites, 

The historical verification belono^s to the subdivisions. 
Meanwhile I may note the fact, as indisputable as it seems 
conclusive, that skepticism is always found among philoso- 
phers ; never among savages, or the ignorant generally, 
who are all firm, because necessary, believers in immor- 
tality. I add the testimony to this effect of an authority 
above suspicion of bias ; who, though a priest was yet a 
philosopher, because he was a Frenchman. Charlevoix 
says of the Canadian savages, among the most backward 
on the continent : " Le croyence le mieux etablis parmi 
nos Americans est celle de 1' immortalite de 1' ame." He 
at the same time adds : *' they however do not conceive it 
to be i^urely spiritual, any more than their manitoos." 
Certainly not; very far from it. The opposite form of ex- 
pression would be nearer the fact, namely, that they do 
not conceive it to be ijurely 7nateria\ And such would 
seem the real impression of the acute author himself, who 
elsewhere seeks to characterize the Indian's notion of the 
soul after death, by describing it " une image vivante " of 
the man. Nor, in fine, was it men alone, but also the 
brute animals and even vegetables, that were held, all 
over the continent, according to the same and other writ- 
ers, to have their manitoos and their future existence. So 
impossible is it found in fact, as our theory had just fore- 
shown it, to dissever the notion of life from some or 
other mode of matter, during the physical Cycle, when 
the things are in truth the same ! But how incalculably 
more inconceivable must be the abstraction of existence 
from the substrates first o? j)lace and then of time; in other 
words, to suppose its annihilation. Yet it is this organic 
necessity, this intensely instinctive belief which our pie- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 333 

tlioric pedants, theological and other, continue to rant 
about as revealed from heaven, some twenty centuries 
since for the first time ! 

§ 133. The primitive and universal belief in a post 
morteni existence established, the matter obviously 
branches off into two parallel lines of investigation. The 
one relates to the form of the existence ; the other to 
the place. 

Respecting the Form, the question was to imagine a 
new embodiment for the departed spirit. This was the very 
difficulty, as will have been remembered, which we saw 
present itself upon the deification of the dead benefactors 
of society. But it was shown, in that case, that those 
hero-divinities were re-embodied in certain physical ob- 
jects; that this took place according to the progressive 
series of our general scale ; and that the special forms 
adopted were, successively : the grave signalized by a 
monument ; the local vegetables and then animals distin- 
guished for their useful properties, positive or preventive ; 
and finally the artificial expedient of statuary. 

Now this was a route as open to the humble as to the 
heroic spirit. It was supplied in fact to the latter by the 
same popular imagination, which would not be likely to 
neglect itself in the like extremity. Not merely so, but 
the provision must have been already long applied to the 
multitude, or it had never been extended to the benefac- 
tors they wished to worship. The sole difference could 
naturally be, that the latter would be allotted the most 
conspicuous receptacles in each kind ; thus retaining, of 
course, the relative rank in the region of spirits which they 
had held in the world of men. For in fact the one has 
been universally the model of the other. Thus, not only 
in the matter of condition but even habitation, we saw the 
earliest temples, the " houses " of the gods, to be cut 
from the living rock, in imitation of the cave houses which 
were the first dwellings of man. In explaining, therefore, 
and exemplifying the material envelopes of these deified 
mortals, during the aggregate course of the Mythological 
Cycle, I have already assigned the succession of forms, or 
as the Greeks named them " vehicles," which the human 
soul must have been thought to assume at the correspond- 
ing stages of mental development. And, moreover, the 
29 



334 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

one is as necessary a consequence as the other, of our 
fundamental law of procedure, from the Concrete to the 
Abstract. We are now to see what experience has to 
say upon the subject. 

Beginning with the lowest samples of humanity upon 
record, we find the belief prevail, in all times, that the 
'* spirit" continues to abide with the natural body. The 
sentiment is amply evinced by the practice of all primitive 
communities, in depositing food or other necessaries in or 
upon the grave. Nor is this practice common alone to mere 
barbarian communities ; it is well known to have prevailed, 
though of course in a modified form, among the so called 
polished people of Greece and Rome ; nay, among the 
Christians themselves, during the earlier centuries of the 
Church. 

No more is it to be thought a religious ceremony; for 
the deposits are minutely adapted to the living condition 
of the inmate. The Hunter savages of this continent bring 
their cake of corn and piece of flesh, by daily supplies as 
they find it themselves, and therefore placed it, not within, 
but upon, the grave. The Shepherd Tartars thrust curds 
and cheese through a hole, left open for this purpose. The 
Agricultural Mexican and Peruvian placed once for all 
within it, a sack of maize with the requisite implements to 
cultivate it in paradise. The Artisan and metallurgic 
Etrurian expanded the sepulchre itself into a chamber ; 
which he furnished with these exquisite vases, chandeliers, 
&c., that attract the ghoul-like cupidity or curiosity of our 
own day, to those sacred recesses of the parent-adoring 
Pelasgi. Nor was such furniture confined to those articles 
which might be termed, of strict necessity ; the one to hold 
the meat, the other the light, of the lonely tenant. In se- 
veral of the tombs have been also found a luxurious sup- 
ply of apparel, jewelry, with gold and silver ornaments, 
and utensils of various other and now inexplicable design. 
In this class I may instance the famous " Galassi tomb" at 
Caere in Italy, first opened some years since, and whose 
contents, precious as well for workmanship as antiquity, 
leave the museum of (I think) the Vatican without a rival 
in this line. 

In fact this circumstance of sumptuousness seems to 
have misled opinion, for over two thousand years back, re- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 335 

specting the proper destination of these monuments. For 
the Greek writers of the polytheistic epoch — when the pri- 
mary belief had been long forgotten and so these tumular 
vehicles occasionally ransacked — represent the mounds as 
" treasuries :" a name still retained, for example, by the 
tomb of Atreus in the vicinity of Athens, and repeated, 
I observe, by even Thirlwall, one of the least commonplace 
of our historians of Greece. It may be indeed that, in more 
forward ages of civilization and robbery, the wealthy did 
sometimes secrete their treasures in somewhat similar re- 
'positories. But if so, the expedient here was suggested, 
as always, by example. The tomb, it would be seen, had 
kept the like valuables for ages untouched ; and then its 
purpose was of course referred to the reigning motives of 
the day — according to the habitual philosophy of the igno- 
rant, who make their own country and creed and age, the 
key to or criterion of all others. 

Now, however, that the human mini is enabled to 
survey from a point without, the entire series of this con- 
crete illusion, there is no difficulty in recognizing that 
these articles of luxury were simply meant to suit the rank, 
as the rations of fooi to satisfy the hunger, of the departed. 
Even some mental food was superadded by the still more 
forward Egyptians; who, besides inclosing a complete 
toilette in the (of course female) sarcophagus, enlivened 
the walls of the tomb with inscriptions and images — the 
mystic work of their sacred hieroglyphic — which they 
fancied must somehow harmonize with what Charlevoix's 
Indians, too, thought, the "imaged" existence of him who 
was to be spectator of the scene. By a higher abstraction, 
there is a custom in Siam and Japan, to this day, of burn- 
ing written papers with the dead, which are held to be 
restored to their pristine integrity, like the owner, in the 
future world. It is familiar to all that the ancient Gauls 
did the same : and when I remind the American reader 
that this simple people were also wont to even loan 
money upon a promise to pay in the same country and its 
spiritual currency, I presume there will remain no doubt 
respecting the imbecile sincerity of all these singular but 
really normal proceedings. I will merely add, then, 
that the amoi'ous Hindoo expects the wife to follow the 
husband, even through the flames of the pyre, to be his carnal 



336 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

comforter in the next world. For such is the plain origin 
of this oriental usage, which, like all the rest enumerated, 
is deemed ignorantly so enigmatical, and of which the 
principle is just the same that must, could the sentiment 
now subsist, make the viaticum of certain modern coun- 
tries be a bundle of newspapers and a box of segars. 

§ 134. Nay, the sentiment really does remain, though 
under a duly modified shape. Of course I speak not 
of the belief in the soul's immortality, for which we 
have the infallible authority of revelation. But what else 
is it, if we analyze the motive, than the sentiment in ques- 
tion that prompts the planting or strewing of flowers upon 
the grave of the beloved ? Wherever this is not the osten- 
tation of a false grief or a false taste ; whereever the 
flowers are not designed, like the widow's weeds, for the 
eye of the living, the thing must necessarily have been 
dictated by the sympathetic assumption, that the present 
may give pleasure to the dead. The practice accordingly 
is now confined to the young and the female ; in whom 
the concrete and illusory prevail over the rational and the 
real. But there are two prejudices particularly wherein 
this barbarous belief of a continued connexion between 
the corpse and the spirit is sanctioned in the most forward 
societies ; I mean the religious sanctity still attached to the 
sepulchre; and, stranger yet, the civil institution of inheri- 
tance. To the former is to be referred the mythological 
fable which made Elysium inaccessible by those whose 
bodies had been left uninterred; an exclusion duly per- 
petuated, by the Catholic church, in the penal denial of 
*' christian burial." As to the j^rinciple of inheritance it 
was originally of the nature of a power of attorney, or 
rather an assignment in trust to the heirs, from the abseni 
owner of the property. 

That the entombed body was deemed the earliest 
abode of the spirit, or more properly was the material 
image of what was long after called the soul, we have, 
therefore, a uniform testimony of fact, as well in the sym- 
bolical prejudices of the half civilized as in the substantial 
presents of the savage. Respecting the latter, which con- 
stituted the properly material " viaticum" of the Physical 
Cycle, it may be added that they are, as usual, found sym- 
bolized under the next period, in the extreme unction or 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 33*7 

communion of the Catholics. I had forgotten to note upon 
tlie same head that, beside the seed-corn and implements 
of culture deposited, by the Peruvians, in the cofiin or the 
grave, these children of the equator inserted, in the hand 
of the dead, a branch of one of their most luxuriant species 
of tree; which was expected, no doubt, to re-bloom, like 
the rest, in the new region, and make the bearer a refresh- 
ing and odorous shade. Such was also the origin, in simi- 
larly sunny Italy, of the famous " golden bough" of the 
Sibyl in Virgil : only here, with the advent of the symbolic 
Cycle, and the consequent oblivion of the primitive pur- 
pose, the branch of myrtle was transformed into the 'pre- 
cious material of gold and made a passport to the Infernal 
world. A world which was itself, it will be shown, but 
the grave, under the same symbolical transformation. 

§ 135. As to the manner of this post mortem connexion 
of the soul with the body there appears to have been, 
indeed there could have been, no definite conception. I 
say there could not have been ; for the notion is negative 
and therefore undefinable. I remember, however, a curi- 
ous coincidence on this point. It is a well-known usage 
of our American Indians to pierce a hole in the head of 
the coffin, in order, say they, to allow egress and ingress 
to the " spirit." Among the Hindoo Indians, their anti- 
podes, there is a sect which continues, exceptionally, to 
bury, instead of burning, its dead. Tliis they do, without 
a coflSn and by placing the body upright in a pit, which is 
filled up tightly with salt to the crown of the head. The 
bare part is then perforated, and, by the singular process 
of breaking upon it a cocoa-nut; the nut being held to 
contract, in this way, certain magical virtues. Of this cere- 
mony the Hindoos themselves can, it seems, give now no 
intelligible account; any more than do the European in- 
terpreters of their mythology. Its history is, however, 
evident to the attentive reader of the foregoing pages. 

Originally the body was buried in its living garb as 
well as posture, and packed in salt or other matter observed 
to preserve against decay. Then, to open the " spirit" an 
outlet, from the body itself, since there was no coffin, and 
of course, at the point nearest to the surface, the savage 
naturally employed the firm shell of the cocoa-nuts which 
strewed the sward about him, and which would be imag- 
29* 



338 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

ined, moreover, to give less pain than a stone. But in pro- 
cess of time the spirit was supposed to find immediate 
embodiment in our second series of vehicles, namely, 
vegetables and animals; a creed, accordingly, well known 
to be the general one of the country. The primitive usage 
would, however, be still continued ; but, its real meaning 
being lost, the efficacy would pass, as usual, from the lite- 
ral object to the symbolized instrument. 

§ 136. These characteristic facts not merely place be- 
yond all quibble the innate belief in a persistence of life 
after death ; they, at the same time, indicate the incipient 
step in the gradual separation or abstraction of the spirit 
from the corpse. For a temporary absence of the one 
from the other is here, we see, supposed. But how 
w^as this primary grade of Abstraction attained 1 For I 
am not at liberty to forget a fundamental article of the 
theory, which affirms that man can never, and least of all 
in his mental infancy, have devised a single expedient or 
imagined a chimera, of which the rudiment was not really 
furnished by his experience. 

The rule will hold in this case too. It was above in- 
timated that, life being the positive state, the necessary 
tendency of the concrete mind was to adhere to the belief 
of its survival. There, doubtless, is not an animal breath- 
ing that has not the same sentiment. The event of death 
would therefore appear but a mere modification, another 
sort, not a cessation, of existence. And this modification 
had its familiar pattern in the phenomenon of sleep, from 
which men were seen habitually to revive. It was obvious, 
then, and what is more it was strictly inductive, to consider 
death to be, like sleep, a mere suspension of muscular 
motion, a temporary absence of vital manifestation, from 
the body ; for soul and mechanical action we have seen to 
be synonymes in the Physical Cycle. This logical and 
affecting mistake is in fact repeated daily over the dead 
parent, in the childhood of the individual. The poets too 
have seized the principle ; and, in dramatizing the death 
of Abel, represent the first family as misapprehending the 
catastrophe for sleep. To the eye of a savage, in fact, 
the sole difference would be the circumstance of prolonga- 
tion. But this obstacle too would vanish before the com- 
bination of two particulars additional : his familiar expe- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 339 

rience of tlie long absence of fi'iends or fellows on their 
bunting excursions, and the vivid image of them which 
lived meanwhile in his own concrete imagination, and 
made the subjective existence scarce separable from the 
objective. 

That this notion of absence is in fact the true explana- 
tion there remains the most curious as well as positive proof 
And I cite it the readier that it furnishes, at the same time, 
a fiftieth exposure of the ludicrous conceptions current, 
concerning the sentiments of remote times. Not the least 
preposterous of these, assuredly, is that which attributes 
to politeness or humanity, the well-knovv'n omission by 
savages and barbarians to mention the fict of death in di- 
rect terms. The truth is that their idioms have no expres- 
sion of this import ; and this again, for the good reason, 
that their minds have not the idea. And they have not the 
idea, because this, as I contend, is a mere negation and to 
be gained in this case but by the analytical abstraction or 
elimination of all the modes of positive existence in the 
phenomenal universe. But of all these, the savage is ac- 
quainted with only two, namely, being present under a 
certain shape to his five senses, and ceasing permanently 
to be so present. The deceased, therefore, necessarily falls 
into the latter category and the condition is always named 
by some synomyme of absence. Witness this in the term 
just employed, and also the word departed, &c., in even our 
own cultivated tongue ; where, however, they have duly 
passed to that symbolic transformation, called metaphor^^ 
which led to the truly pedagogical discovery of the savage 
refinement aforesaid. Nor does the use of this primitive 
form, though without the faith, by the poets, prove any 
more than the true instinct of their art. By this was Vir- 
gil taught to copy the concrete energy of infant language, 
in ejaculating : Fuit Ilium, Troya. fait. But an instance 
more to our purpose has been still more finely rendered, 
from the " sublime old Erse" idiom, by Scott in the lament 
of Khenach (§ 79) over the dead body of Duncan. 

" He is gone on the mountain, 

He is lost to the foi est ; 
Like a summer-dried fountain, 
When our need was the sorest." 

The words in italics imply now, of course, the death of 



340 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the lamented ; but they still express, as they originally de- 
noted, nothing more than his local absence. And this 
primitive meaning is illustrated with a happy though cer- 
tainly accidental propriety, by the simile of the dried foun- 
tain to be replenished after a time. 

I have heard of a criticism on this passage vv^hich 
suggests the possibility that some learned professor may 
mistake its bearing upon the argument. It seems that one 
of our men of letters, or as we style them, " literary cha- 
racters," thought its grammar proved the Celtic Scott to 
have never attained, any more than Hume, to the perfec- 
tion of writing pure " Anglo-Saxon." For the poet's 
meaning, he thought from the context, was not that Duncan 
had ascended the mountain ; but on the contrary, that he 
had gone off it, in fact died ; and the expression " gone 
on" it, must, therefore, be a Scotch solecism. Seriously, 
however, a solecism, it really is, but a sublime one, and be- 
comes plain and pure if we supply the ellipsis asTollows: 
'• gone," (with respect to his clansmen, whose abode was), 
" on the mountain." The ellipsis indeed, involves a subse- 
quent analysis of the situation, and went for nothing in the 
concrete imagination of the barbarian. But the idiomatic 
beauty and energy of the expression are due precisely to 
this crude oversight of the speaker ; for in after ages he 
gets the credit of having purposely thus identified himself, 
in local position as well as grief, with the mourning moun- 
taineers, and what was puerile imbecility is analyzed into 
'profound art! This is the vaunted superiority of old 
idioms, old ballads, and old notions in general. And I do 
not fear to affirm that, to this metaphysical analysis and 
" allegorizing" exegesis of posterior ages, are due no small 
part of, for example, the sublimity of Homer, the divinity 
of the Bible, and (what will be deemed more impious still 
perhaps) the profundity of Shakspeare. So that the no- 
ble lines recited, besides illustrating our doctrine concern- 
ing the primitive conception of death, serve to reveal, 
among the rest, the deepest secret of the poetic art. For 
this art consists in the artlessness of seeing things with the 
eyes, and even saying them in the language, of the savage. 
In this way the imbecilities of infant intellect and idiom 
will, by mere virtue of the symbolic position of the meta- 
physical reader, pass for sublimities of imagery and thought. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 341 

Add to this, that the literal sentiments of the savage will 
find a living echo beneath the crust of what is called civili- 
zation and education ; which as yet are hollow and facti- 
tious in the hard-headed herd of mankind. 

Such is the confluence of explanation which the theory 
may pour at pleasure, upon the point considered, from the 
most remote and various sources ; or the spontaneous fa- 
cility, with which it re-diffuses those streams of light, over 
the most opposite and accredited of errors. 

§ 137. It is abundantly clear, then, that the primitive 
man has in fact regarded the buried body as the continued 
abode of the " spirit." Also, that he was enabled by ob- 
servation of sleep, &c., to conceive the latter as being 
separable for certain intervals of time. These periods 
might, upon the pretexts suggested, be extended indefi- 
nitely. But the separation could be deemed neither final 
nor absolute so long as the natural tenement remained in 
a habitable condition. It could not be imagined, even 
when the body had, in process of time, been discovered 
to dilapidate ; for the negative notion of soul clung, of 
course, to the mere matter, after the form was gone. The 
consequence would only be a more strenuous effort to- 
preserve the former, and a vague expectation that the lat- 
ter must be restored, after other obvious examples of re- 
generation. Meanwhile, however, it was felt necessary to 
lodge the " spirit" elsewhere. And here I cannot forbear 
signalizing the admirable providence of nature, the intri- 
cate yet simple economy of the great law of progression ; 
in which the new expedient is always in process of pre- 
paration long before the old is exhausted, and by which 
the intellect is passed from the one to the other, not ab- 
ruptly, but insensibly, nay with the persuasion that the 
change is merely partial and provisional — thus weaning 
the infant mind from its material attachment to habit, by a 
tesselated series of beneficent illusions. But before fol- 
lowing the soul into this secondary stage of its peregrina- 
tion, it will be proper to test historically the effort just 
alluded to for the protection, preservation, and regenera- 
tion of the body. 

I must, however, exclude for the present this long 
historical induction, and merely give the results, which 
are happily not unfamiliar. They are respectively 



342 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Inhumation, Embalming, and Incremation. The first 
and second methods have been indicated incidentally. 
We saw the effort to protect, in putting the body in the 
earth, inclosing it in a coffin, surmounting it with a mound 
or mole, &c. ; then came the special effort to preserve it 
against internal foes, by packing it in sand, salt and other 
antiseptic or desiccatory material, after excluding the cen- 
tres of moisture, the bowels and the brain. And all this 
being, in course of ages, observed to fail in turn, resort 
was finally had to burning the corpse to its ultimate dust, 
beyond which it could not be pursued, it seemed, by the 
tooth of decay. This was expected to reproduce the 
body, after a certain time, by regeneration. That such 
was the idea, I cite a palpable proof It is, that the Hin- 
doos, who have in general reached the stage of Incre- 
mation, are wont to moisten the ashes, left by the body, into 
a paste and shape it into a little figure of the original ; to 
which figure they make invocation and sacrifice on the 
spot as the regenerated form of the deceased. At a duly 
higher stage this seminal virtue was attached by the Chris- 
tians to the teeth, which Tertullian held to be made peren- 
nial by Providence in order to furnish the " seeds of the 
resurrection." Hence, also, the expedient of Cadmus, for 
restoring the lost race of mankind, &c. 

But the "spirit," thus retreating successively, from the 
whole body to the various parts, then to the ultimate par- 
ticles, and finally obliged to drop its hold upon that 
proverb of lubricity, the skin of the teeth (the enamel 
being in fact the antiseptic element) ; the spirit or life, I 
say, must find a vehicle elsewhere, in awaiting the period 
of resurrection. This, according to the theory, should 
have been the second department of natural bodies named 
the Orofanic series, and embracins: vegetables and animals. 
Here is the rise and rationale of the mysterious Metemp- 
sychosis. However pressed for space, I must spare it 
some illustration. 

§ 138. Reverting, asusualjtothefoot of the scale, we find 
the Canadian savages, according to Charlevoix, exhibit 
an inkling of the metempsychosis, but apply it as yet to 
children alone. How pregnant is this simple fact, in the 
light of our principle. The point, however, more imme- 
diately in question is the notion that must have evidently 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 343 

led them to the belief. This was the manifest unfitness of 
the infant body to serve the " spirit" in its new situation. 
A being so feeble and dependent in life, could not be sup- 
posed capable of subsisting apart from parental support. 
For the "land of souls" of the Indian was not yet the lux- 
urious paradise of the Mahomedan, or the lazy heaven of 
the monk ; it was the hardworking heaven of the hunter. 
The infant corpse, then, appeared immediately in the same 
predicament of inaptitude, as the full grown body when, 
in process of time, it is found unfitted by decay. The con- 
sequence too is, of course, the same as that described in the 
latter case — the transmigration of the infant spirit into a 
more congruous abode; into the gentle and domestic flow- 
er that sprung behind the wigwam, and sipped the dew 
and basked in the sun and re-bloomed with the season ; or 
some innocent and tender bird observed to haunt the sur- 
rounding trees and murmur all day long its song of sympa- 
thy with the bereaved mother. Quite accordingly, this 
rudimentary metempsychosis of the Canadian savage was, 
the author tells us, usually into " a turtle-dove." 

The principle is equally pointed in its higher Mexican 
development ; where the souls of soldiers who fell in battle, 
and of women who died in childbirth were alone held, after 
passing some time in the " house of the sun," to return to 
the earth and become precious stones, and birds of beautiful 
feather or song. In the first place this intermediate so- 
journ is signally characteristic. The prematurity of death 
in the two categories specified, was not at all so considera- 
ble as in the previous case of childhood. It was consist- 
ent then, to suppose them subject to a proportionate resi- 
dence in the ideal world ; which in this, as in all else, was 
but the counterpart of the real. But I was to remark that 
the reason of the new embodiment was still the same. The 
slain, in barbarian warfare, are apt to be mutilated, either on 
the field of battle or on the altar of hostile gods; and the 
Mexicans knew, without having probably read Plato or 
Homer, that all wounds or mutilations pursue the body 
into Elysium. As to the other class of bodies, they would 
plainly be not less disqualified for their principal, their 
conjugal destination. And if the coarser equity of the 
northern savage had been struck by neither of these 
violent deaths, it was partly because of the mature pro- 



^44 



VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 



portion of life which they pre-suppose, and partly that 
death by battle was, with the people in question, quite 
as natural, because as usual, as death by age ; whereas 
the other description of casualty was a thing unknown, I 
believe, among the forest mothers. With the advent 
of civil society, which renders wars more rare and wives 
more delicate, the Canadians too would learn to make 
provision for these lesser inequalities. 

In fine another step in the progressive application 
may be shown to lurk under the following singular 
usage. The Siamese who burn their dead (and conse- 
quently believe in transmigration), make exception of the 
bodies of all who come to a violent or otherwise pre- 
mature end. The reason they are said to assign is, that 
such persons must have been criminals in a previous state 
of existence, and are therefore cut short in this, by way of 
punishment. Without disputing that such is the doctrine 
at present of the Budhist priests, and of course the people 
of Siam, it will immediately appear to be but another in- 
stance of the " allegorizing" above characterized as a habi- 
tual misrepresentation of the literal epoch of the Cycle, 
as afterwards viewed from the symbolic side. The origi- 
nal, the instinctive motive of the exclusion alluded to, sim- 
ply was, that the bodies were deemed not fit for preserva- 
tion, for regeneration; either because of the imperfect de- 
velopment of infancy, or infirmity of disease, or the mutila- 
tions of violence. These are accordingly the cases, which 
suggested, as we have seen progressively, the first resort 
to the alternative supposition of the metempsychosis. But 
it is from being at first the rule, that they were turned into 
an exception, by the symbohcal invertion of doctrine, which 
is now in order of explanation. 

This too, however, must be excluded. Though curi- 
ous as explaining the rise of the " metamorphosis" or 
third stage of the Metempsychosis, yet the latter seems 
sufliiciently characterized as the ''Vehicular" system of the 
Organic epoch, by these few critical explanations of its 
origin and seeming anomalies, and by adding that it ends 
in the Pagan and Catholic Purgatory. 

So that we are thus conducted, quite naturally be- 
cause historically, from the consideration of the soul's 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 345 

supposed forms after death, to the other branch of the 
induction, which respected the Locality. 

§ 139. The idea itself of a ^/«ce of purgation supposes 
the coexistence of two alternatives as extremes. There 
must have been a place where the obstinately impenitent, 
that is to say, the incorrigibly rebellious to political or 
priestly authority, were to be consigned to irretrievable 
torment. There must also have been a place of pleasure, 
for the reception, immediate or ultim.ate, of those good, 
orderly, ignorant souls who either sanctified themselves 
completely by servility in this life, or after by the expia- 
tory purifications of the metempsychosis, or the purchased 
prayers of the Church. Such, accordingly, has been the 
doctrine of all the mythologies of the earth ; for all have 
taught, more or less distinctly in proportion to develop- 
ment, the two localities which the Greeks denominated 
Tartarus and Elysium. And the notion will be found as 
spontaneous, as natural, as necessary as we have seen to 
be the intermediate hypothesis of Transmigration. 

In fact, the conception or rather instinct, is another co- 
rollary from the dualism of Motive ; the Good and Evil Prin 
ciples imply good and evil places. This instinct leads the 
savage, as Charlevoix relates of the Canadians, to suppose 
that, according to his condition here, he must be miserable 
or happy in a future state. But though the conditions be 
distinguished, there as yet was no separation of the respec- 
tive localities. There could have been no systematic one, 
without the distinct conception of providence, of destina- 
tion, of will; an idea utterly foreign to the earlier ages of 
the Mythological Cycle. The motive here is equalization 
as resulting from Resemblance ; not Difference to the end 
of vengeance or voluptuousness. The " land of souls" is, 
like the land of bodies, the common receptacle of all; and 
the condition of each is colored, or brightly or darkly, as 
experience is projected on a ground of hope or of despair. 
But with the development of design came the division of 
locations ; and with its progress, the relative divergence 
of the three spiritual regions from the central depot or 
porch of entrance, which was the grave. 

§ 140. It was a consequence of this terrestrial starting 
point, as well as a necessity of the law of progression, that 
the two extreme stations should, no less than the inter 
30 



346 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

mediate, be situated at first upon the earth. It is even by 
the concrete aid of its inequalities of hill and vale that the 
divergence has been prosecuted through space. The first 
stage of this apposition was between life above ground or 
" in the land," as the Jews expressed it, and the life of the 
grave. The next placed this barbarian hell and heaven, 
respectively, on the neighbouring mountain, and in the 
valley beneath it. The procession is well preserved in 
the Latin denomination of hell, which was anciently termed 
sepulchrum or the grave, and afterwards infernum or the 
below. The Jewish place of judgment (their necropolis) 
was the "valley" of Jehosaphat, and the place of Enoch's 
translation was the "mountain" of God. The Hindoos, 
and in short all the oriental nations, built their temples or 
erected their altars, upon elevated sites ; and the readers 
of the Bible know the phrase " high places" to have be- 
come a synonym for the stated seats of worship ; so 
made, because held sanctified by either the prior resi- 
dence or also the present sojourn, of the gods. The more 
enlarged experience of the same Hindoos removed the 
palace of Indra and the paradise Swerga to the summit of 
the Himmalaya ; and this, as if after found not sufficiently 
inaccessible, is now aloofed or abstracted, under the name 
of Mount Meru, to the north pole. Further still, the semi- 
civilized Greeks of the Platonic age had extended the Ar- 
cadian Olympus of Homer into the clouds, and buried 
Tartarus still deeper in a cavern of Baeotia. As the fact 
of this progression in respect of the latter locality was 
above attested by the Latin transition of the name ; so the 
the title of Olympus, the previous seat of paradise, passed 
in like manner, among the Greeks, to the firmament. 
Nay, do not the Christians, too, call their heaven the " New 
Jerusalem," by a like derivation from the Jerusalem of 
old and earth; either because the latter was the Tumular 
abode of their God, or the literal heaven of their Hebrew 
ancestors in faith ? 

Thus did the explorations of geography progressively 
eliminate these celebrated places from the face of the 
earth. This consummation was duly attained, we saw, 
with the end of the Physical Cycle ; which moves in all 
things, real or imaginary, upon material nature alone. 
The Greeks, having passed onward to the ascending side 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 347 

of the next Cycle, abstracted the one upwards into the 
air, and the other downwards into the earth. After came 
the Christians, who pushed these regions farther, the one 
to the " central fire," and the other to the " milky way" — 
where they still remain, I believe, according to the last 
charts of our theological topographers. 

§ 141. The conformity to theory is perhaps still more 
striking, in the uniform direction assigned to this queer mi- 
gration. The Atalantis or "happy isles" of the Greeks — 
in their transition, no doubt, from Olympus to the air — 
were situated in the Western Ocean. The Egyptians 
styled their paradise the Land, and their god Osiris the 
Lord, of the ''West." To the West lay Hkewise, the 
*' land of spirits" of all our American savages. And so, 
in short, with every primitive population of the earth. 
Nor is this concurrence at all curious when we know the 
identity of the cause. It has been largely shown that men 
have always imagined the future world after their general 
experience of the present. But the circumstance in question 
was determined in the prae-social state ; when the more for- 
ward nations instanced were also forest hunters, with the 
" westering" sun for their guide and god by day, the 
dog for their guard by night, and the river for their impas- 
sable or most perilous obstacle. Accordingly the dog and 
river are equally uniform accompaniments. I need not 
mention the Styx and Cerberus of the classical as well as 
Egyptian and other mythologies ; and of which it would, 
I think, be difficult to assign a different origin. This is al- 
so the origin of the ocean river of Homer, beyond which 
lay the land of the Cimmerians or Shades. Virgil has been 
criticised upon the propriety of introducing the yell- 
ing of dogs (1) in his description of the infernal regions. It 
was not understood that, like a good poet, he did but copy 
the popular tradition concerning the spiritual world of the 
shepherd or the savage. And as the canine guardian 
came, in course of the progression so often traced, to be 
transformed at last, into the angelic ; so the obstacle of the 
river is found figured into the " bi-frost" or rainbow bridge 
of the Scandinavians, and farther still abstracted in the " Al 

(1) Canes ululantes per umbram. Another instance is that of 
Charon (the first of coroners) and his canoe. 



348 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIOIS". 

Sirat" of the more civilized Moslem. Even the deviations 
of circumstance attest the general archetype. If the Hin- 
doo paradise be placed, as we have seen, exceptionally, to 
the north, it is that the mountain range, which was its ear- 
liest station, stands in this relation towards the Indian 
peninsula, and, being the loftiest on the globe, preserved 
the latest from intrusion, the sacred eyrie where imagina- 
tion had nursed the brood of her infant visions. 

Thus far for the soul's places of eternal Pleasure or 
Pain. The remaining locality of Penance has been char- 
acterized already in finding the progression of the metemp- 
sychosis end in the notion of purgatory. Respecting all 
three, I perhaps owe an apology for advancing doctrines 
so novel, without supporting them with a larger show of 
illustration. My excuse is the already assigned necessity. 
There would probably be no room for demur could I re- 
tain what did accompany them, in a survey' of this " land of 
shades" as represented at progressive epochs, by Homer^ 
by Virgil, and by Dante. The omission I regret pain- 
fully ; not, however, that I deem the discussion at all essen- 
tial to support the text ; but that it would shed I think, a 
flood of light upon a number of unsettled questions, which 
have for ages been the topics both of religious and critical 
controversy. And this forbids on the other hand, that I 
should dare to try abridgment. So I must conclude with 
reminding the reader, that the three localities thus estab- 
lished are the spirit residences of the third order or those 
appropriated to what I name the Social and Theistic forma- 
tion of Religion ; as the three grades of the metempsy- 
chosis belong to the Fetitchistic, and the three Sepulchral 
expedients to the Sabeistic stages. And then to add, that 
the three main stages present the usual strict conformity 
with the three mathematical modes of conception : the 
first or sepulchral attaching the " spirit" to individual points 
of the earth ; the second moving it along the lines or the 
series of transmigration ; the third, surrounding it with 
the fgtcrcd inclosures of Hell or Heaven or Purgatory- — 
a triad, itself, again the result of the same inevitable law. 

§ 142. It will be seen that in this survey of the reli- 
gions of the primitive Cycle, I have made little or no allusion 
to the principle of reward or punishment. The reason is, 
that according to the theory it could then have no recog- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 349 

nized existence. The supposed sufferings and enjoyments 
of the Future State of this period, were, we saw, but mere 
instinctive reflections of the present, allotted by analogy 
or by contrariety ; they were never predicated upon the 
principle of AVill, which is the only proper object of re- 
ward or punishment. Accordingly these considerations 
first appeared upon the scene with the advent of the Meta- 
physical Cycle. 

Yet these doctrines of a ^^ future state," and a " future 
state of rewards diXid. punishments,^' thus separate in origin 
by a multitude of ages, are almost universally confounded, 
or conjoined by a combination quite as monsti^ous as that of 
the Siamese twins. The former is tugged forward, its 
prior existence is denied, by those who see the compara- 
tive recency of the moral qualification, but who see no far- 
ther ; the better informed, on the other hand, who find the 
belief in a future state to have been coeval with man him- 
self, drag backwards the reward and punishment to the 
same primeval date. This twofold ambiguity was the 
false and flexile position upon which Warburton ven- 
tured to rest and risque the inspiration of Moses. His 
famous arf^ument ran thus : " That the inculcatinqr the doc- 
trine of a future state of rewards and punishments, is ne- 
cessary to the well-being of civil society." And this he 
supports by the assertion, that it was so " believed and 
taught by all 7nankind, especially the most ivise and learned 
nations of antiquity." 

Now, in the first place, we have seen that it was never 
dreamt of by one half of mankind ; and that it was be- 
lieved by the nations specified, not because of their half 
learning or wisdom, but simply as a concomitant develop- 
ment of their mental adolescence. The alleged proof, 
then, is utterly at variance in both the points, with the 
main proposition. As a fact, it is false ; as an argument, 
inconclusive. For, as to the necessity here pretended, it 
is no better at least in logic, than to argue that the feeding 
men with the breast or the bottle, or chastising them with 
the birch or the fool's-cap is necessary to their well-being 
and well-doing, because this may have been the case in 
their infancy and boyhood. The parity would be self- 
evident were it not that general language has as yet no 
names to denote the analogous stages of progression in the 
30* 



350 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

body social. And that the things themselves had no ex- 
istence in even the great intellect of Warburton, may well 
be excused when we consider the present notions on the 
subject. I merely say, however, that his inference is false 
in logic ; I do not adopt the profane retort of a wit of my 
acquaintance : That if " no civilized community of man- 
kind has been ever found without some superstition," it 
was simply because none has yet been civilized enough to 
have got rid of it. I confine myself to reminding the 
reader, that one who could see into the future a good deal 
farther than Warburton, even Aristotle himself, insisted in 
his day that the institution of slavery was equally " indis- 
pensable to the well-being of civil society." What are the 
present notions on the subject % What will be the notion 
upon many other subjects in two thousand years ? 

The minor proposition of this truncated syllogism as- 
serts the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punisJi- 
ments to have had no part in the dispensation of Moses. 
Very true, it had not. But beside the miraculous conclu- 
sion of Warburton, there is a natural explanation. It is, 
that the people for whom Moses legislated were barba- 
rously deep within the Physical Cycle. In such a case 
the presence of the doctrine in question would be a much 
better proof than its absence of the " divine original" of 
the Legation ; for tliat would have been an exception in- 
deed to all other communities of early humanity. And so 
again, at the mere touch of the true theory of history, we 
see crumble the entire fabric of an intellectual structure, 
erected to prop the heavens, with an energy and arrogance 
almost equal to the Titan enterprise of old to pull them 
down. 

§ 143. It may, however, be properly respectful to the 
prepossessions of certain readers to justify more particularly 
the rejection of the ancient Hebrews into this primitive or 
barbarian category. To those who can reflect, the follow- 
ing facts will be decisive ; the sentiments of the merely 
pious I do not seek to disturb. 

The instances may be taken at random from every 
national aspect of the " chosen people." I have had occa- 
sion to allude already to the extreme poverty and rudeness 
of their idiom. In syntax, the pronouns and other parti- 
cles generally concreted to the noun or verb ; no articles 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE, 351 

proper ; no declensions ; conjugations also in the bud ; 
tenses only two, the past and the future ; moods just as few, 
the infinitive and imperative — the indicative itself remain- 
ing still, like the present tense, undeveloped from the ele- 
mentary form of the verb. In style, the comparisons) 
parables, &c., uniformly short, blunt, uncircumstantial, that 
is to say infantile ; prosopopoeias frequent ; in short, the 
w^hole context grotesquely figurative and indigently allu- 
sory. But to sura up all in a single and practical test, the 
Bible has been translated into the idioms of our American 
savages — a process evidently implying an analogous plane 
of conception. 

Quite consonant is the Jewish ignorance in the matter 
oi science ; even back to its dawning embodiment of as- 
tronomy. The Bible, their sole production or their whole 
literature, and composed at progressive intervals by the 
" wisest" men of Israel, makes mention, I believe at all, of 
only three or four of the heavenly bodies. And of thes3 
we may infer how intelligent was the notion, from the 
memorable solstice produced by Joshua. AVhereas the 
naked barbarians of our own continent had, several of them, 
invented elaborate calendars. I am aware that, in the face 
of this positive evidence, the contrary is pretended of the 
Patriarchs. But we all know the Patriarchs came out of 
the mire of the flood more learned, more everything than 
are the philosophers of the nineteenth century. 

Another proof may be drawn from the poetry of the 
Hebrews. And this will be the more significant, that the 
art is not only among the earliest to be cultivated, but is 
brought to what is commonly regarded its perfection, 
within the Cycle of the barbarous epoch. Yet the Jews 
had not attained to the first condition of the art, which is 
measure. It is agreed, I believe, by all sober inquirers, 
that they had no metre, no rhythm, nothing in short to be 
called prosody. The utmost their most pious panegyrists 
can substantiate in this particular, is a sort of crude chime 
or parallelism between the memhcrs of the sentence. Now, 
when we consider that before attaining to the mechanical 
principle of verse, this chime must be extended, by slowly 
progressive stages, next to the separate words, then to the 
several syllables, and finally to the vowel sounds, which 
the Hebrews moreover had not learned to note or distin- 



352 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

guish ; if I say this backwardness be duly weighed — in a 
form of development too among the most primitive and 
precocious — there will be no possibility,! fear, of ranldng 
the national mind above one of the lowest conditions of 
concreteness and materiality. 

Their imagery is as conclusive to the same effect as the 
art. And images are perhaps the best characters, the sig- 
nal colours, v«^hereby to know a nation or an individual intel- 
lectually. Those of the Jews, it will be recollected by 
the least observant reader of Holy "Writ, are drawn almost 
uniformly from the two sources of drunkenness and lust; 
that is to say, the most beastial and barbarian of vices. I 
may have already referred to their coarse and constant use 

of the image of generation And, in a word, Priapus 

himself had his unclean origin in Judea. But it has ap- 
peared that the notion of offspring is naturally man's earliest 
medium for the connexion or expression of two ideas in 
a series. This Jewish trait is then the exigence of an in- 
fant intellect and idiom. The same infantile simplicity 
acquits the holy writers of the infamies of language they 
are found unconsciously uttering. Such is also the expla- 
nation of those pictured atrocities that stain the walls of 
the primeval cave-temples of Elephantina and Salsette, 
and were paraded in the pious processions of various 
other barbarians. Or if, for our Jewish masters in morals, 
religion and the rest, there be any who will not accept this 
very innocent apology, I leave them to the sole alternative 
of excusing a book of inspiration, for indecencies which 
would be thought too disgusting, I presume, by a volup- 
tuary of any refinement, to insert in a book of obscenity. 

I conclude then that the sole superiority, (humanly 
speaking) of the Hebrews, over either the barbarians or sa- 
vaQ:es named, lay in certain factitious forms derived from 
accidental circumstances. They had (unlike the Hurons, for 
examjDle), a leader educated in, and emanating from, a 
comparatively civilized nation. This personage brought 
amongst them the utmost proficiency of Egypt in the learn- 
ing and arts of the Mythological Cycle ; and above all, the 
art of writing in the demotic, that is to say, popular or al- 
phabetic form. In theology too he might have imported a 
species of personal monotheism, then breaking upon the van 
of the Egyptian intellect. But this idea, whencesoever de- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 353 

rived, was the pivot upon which the human mind was turned 
into the new order of the succeeding Cycle. And it was 
but natural that the glory or self-conceit of the putative 
offspring should be reflcted back, in colours extravagant in 
proportion as adventitious, uj^on the obscure and patriar- 
chal stock of Juda. 

§ 144. I cannot close this long, yet too succinct, survey of 
the divinities, doctrines and rites of Heathenism without a 
parting (and also premonitory) word of explanation. If, in 
any part, I have seemed to write of these wretched errors of 
infant humanity, in a spirit of levity or even censure, it was 
not my meaning to condemn them unqualifiedly. In their 
origin and season the very worst of them were salutary. 
And this not only in comparison with having no religion 
at all ; but even relatively to the sublimest doctrines of re- 
velation or of reason. The wooden log of the Sandwich 
Islander did more to allure the man out of the brute,, than 
could have been effected (whatever the missionaries may 
pretend to the contrary) by the philosophy of Socrates or 
the morality of Christ. It is not the existence then of these 
inevitable follies that I could have the ignorance to de- 
nounce. It is the noxious perpetuation of them, through 
a parasitical craft, who are sure to creep around and cover 
their gradual progress to decay, and prop the ruin until 
humanity be crushed by the sudden crash. Or rather it 
is that swinish torpidity of intellect, with which most men 
are seen in ages, so called, of science and inquiry, to sur- 
render not only reason but the first elements of common 
sense, to the traditional dictates of a farrago of nursery 
tales, imagined two or three thousand years ago, by a hand- 
ful of scrofulous barbarians^ the refuse of the ancient and 
the ridicule of the modern world, and whose very coun- 
tenance is stamped, by nature, of that money-getting type 
which marks the passage of the idiot into the knave, and 
speaks an intellect that only ranges between the pimp 
and the pedler. But I beg the reader's pardon that I lose, 
for once, my self-control. I was just apologizing for the 
appearance of levity. But, on follies of this sort, where is 
the medium between irony and indignation ? 

As to the general execution, I will now pretend to little 
more than that, in spite of the mutilation, it opens through- 
out this wilderness the leading routes of order and explana- 



354 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

tion. And this I claim to have been now clone for the first time. 
If this be doubted, the reader may look into the latest writers 
on the subject. He will find the most elaborate of them, 
Creuzer, throughout his ponderous folios, still wallowing 
in the chaos, with true German complacency. And even the 
philosophical Dupuis loses the methodic instinct of his na- 
tion, and huddles the savage fetitchism of the Esquimaux 
or the negro in the same category with what he dares to 
deem the like superstition of the Christians. But this 
would be to abandon a portion of human history — and a 
portion still the most extensive and perhaps instructive — to 
the puerile wonder of the half-learned at the profound 
vagaries of the ancients, and the lamentations of the 
wholly pious over the perversities of the devil. I trust I 
have shown at least that something better may be reasona- 
bly exacted from those who should resume the theme in 
future. 



CHAPTER lY. 

SYSTEMS. 
Pldlosojjliy of tlie Ancient Scliools of Sjpeculation. 



§ 145. Upon this the last head of the general division I 
can retain but the bare conclusions, the classificatory re- 
sults, which have been obtained through an extended his- 
torical analysis. 

The speculative systems of this Cycle have, in strict ac- 
cordance with the theory, sought to account for the origin 
of things ; and successively by the three principles of Di- 
vinity, Entity, Order. The first represents the " Cosmo- 
gonists" proper or theological, who explained the forma- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 355 

tion of the world preeternaturally, by an agent external to 
it, and who form the natural sequel to the preceding arti- 
cle of Doctrines. The second principle, which explained 
the origin of the world by something within it, is repre- 
sented in the Greek school, named the " Ionic;" duly the 
oldest of the philosophic sects, and whose founder, Thales, 
is said to have supplanted the cosmogonists. But it has 
not been observed that in order to be fit to do so, the school 
must have been, what it was, we see, metaphysical. On 
the contrary, it has got the appellation of *' physical ;" a 
term anciently appHed to distinguish it from the subse- 
quent ethical systems, but taken, preposterously, in its mo- 
dern sense, by all modern writers on the subject. The third 
or principle of order found its earUest organ in the " school 
of Elea," which is accordingly recorded as subsequent and 
antagonistic to the Ionic. The sequence and contrast were 
well described in a celebrated saying of the ancients them- 
selves : that " as Thales saw gods in all things (meaning 
doubtless the " entities," which could not yet be popular- 
ly distinguished from the reigning divinities), so Xeno- 
phanes (the founder of the "Eleatics") saw all things in 
God." The latter is we see precisely the synthetic con- 
verse of the former. Yet here, too, the very reverse, is 
the universal doctrine. The Eleatic school is described 
as metaphysical, analytic and atheistic. To the contrary 
in all three, it was physical, synthetic, and pantheistic. 
Xenophanes was the Spinoza of the iVIythological Cycle. 
§ 146. It was accordingly the pressure of his " Uni- 
versal Unity" that gave birth to the miscellaneous sects of 
the " Sophists," so admirably fitted to form the stratum of 
transition from the basis of Nature to the basis of Man. 
The earliest erection upon this conjoint ground was 
the school named the "Ionic;" and whose specialty of 
origin is signally evinced in the tradition that it was the 
first to mingle politics with physics. But I will add a still 
nicer test. It is a first principle of our theory, that, with- 
out this combination of man with nature, the scientific 
conception of natural law was impossible, in even the sim- 
plest form. But this form, we know, is Number. Now, it 
is known almost popularly that this was the arche of Py- 
thagoras, the famous founder of the Italic sect, and whose 
colossal distinction with all posterity is also thus explained, 



•356 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

in bis being tbe first to stride tbe gulf between tbe physical 
and moral Cycles. I wish there was room to show, how 
spontaneously the theory could go on to unriddle all the 
mysteries, as well of doctrine as character, of this singu- 
lar personage. For instance, among the former, one of 
the most impenetrably recondite is the *• binary system of 
contraries." But it is plainly a dim perception, under the pri- 
mary or Logical aspect, of the law of intellectual Polarity first 
enunciated in this volume. So amongst at housand other 
things, with his systematization of the metempsychosis, a 
doctrine we just saw mark the same intermediary passage 
to the second Cycle. 

This tendency but just inchoative in the school of the 
showy Samian, must reflect, if I am right, a still more 
emphatic celebrity upon the culminant representative of 
the new epoch. Accordingly what reader has not been 
tauoht to venerate the sage, the sublime, the divine, the 
godlike Socrates : for all perhaps of these fervid epithets 
have been re-echoed by even pious Christians. But I 
believe no one hitherto has either heard or given a 
truly rational explanation of an estimate so anomalous 
and extravagant. I say extravagant ; for what so great 
had Socrates done, for the benefit of his country or kind 1 
His sole works were his words. And these were, in the 
most literal sense, the " ivinged words" of Homer ; for 
they were never committed to writing. Of their utility 
therefore, whatever it might have been in reality, posteri- 
ty could know nothing save through the medium of tradi- 
tion ; and this tradition for the most part transmitted 
through the dialetical exercitations, more or less Bosvvell- 
ized, of the fictitious dialogues of Plato. This then could 
be no adequate basis for the pre-eminence and the perpet- 
uation of his fame, even though his merits were well as- 
sured to have been all that his disciples pretended. To 
this natural predilection of a few, however, there is, more- 
over, to be opposed the general opinion of the fellow-citi- 
zens of Socrates, as represented but too faithfully and 
fatally by Aristophanes. I am aware that this is scouted 
as the judgment of the multitude. But it is not distin- 
guished that it was the aristocratic multitude of intellectual 
Athens. Besides, it is not considered that the condemna- 
tion in that case was the very thing which the parties 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 357 

themselves, who have been always the foremost to de- 
nounce it, style the conservatism of intelligence and piety. 
For in truth Socrates was regarded by his townsmen gen- 
erally as a mischievous visionary; very much as Fourier, 
for example, is in our own day contemplated, fi-om a quite 
analogous point of view. But were the millennium of 
Socialism to obtain the control of civilization, think you 
not that Fourier would come to be hymned as the most 
^'godlike" of men? Even so precisely was Socrates; 
merely in virtue of being the herald of the Moral Cycle, 
and precursor of the Christian system. 

The anomaly then, as well as extravagance, of the praise 
bestowed by Christian ages upon this heathen philosopher 
are thus naturally explained by a sympathy of epoch. 
This we also saw to be the cause of the singular fame of 
Pythagoras; which, however, notwithstanding the more 
positive merits of the political organizer of Magna Graecia, 
was duly inferior in duration, as I have shown the cause 
to have been in degree. We may now go on to under- 
stand why Cicero, the pagan moralist, has celebrated 
Socrates as the " first who brought philosophy from the stars 
(de coelo)," that is to say, turned speculation from physical 
nature to Man. Why Dr. Johnson, the Christian moralist, 
re-echoes the eulogy, exaggerating it by a mistranslation of 
heaven for astronomy. Why Jean Jaques Rousseau, the 
deistical moralist, does not hesitate to run a parallel be- 
tween the sons of Sophroniscus and Mary ; and this not 
only in life, but especially in death. The latter point of 
comparison discovers Rousseau's usual profundity of in- 
stinct. For it was, in fact, the circumstance of Socrates' 
death that redounded chiefly to the subsequent popularity 
of his name. Under the Cycle of Force, a Curtius or a 
Codrus could die for the salvation of his country, and a 
Regulus for the superstition of his oath. Under the Cycle 
of Will the Christian martyrs made the like sacrifice for 
conscience ; but Socrates was shown to be the earliest syste- 
matic organ of the latter epoch ; indeed his celebrated 
guardian *' demon" announced the birth of Conscience into 
the world. It is but consistent that he should have suffered 
for what is quite the same under another name, and been 
the first of men to die voluntarily for his opinion, 1 
31 



358 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

may add, that to live and labor i'ov it will constitute the 
heroism and even the holiness of the ages of Science. 

In venturing the foregoing remarks I had no disposi- 
tion to derogate from the just fame of one of the greatest 
and best of mankind. But my task of explanation does 
not allow me to conceal, how much the reputation of what 
men call greatness and goodness, and even the qualities 
themselves, depend upon the place of the individual in the 
development of the species. 

§ 147. Be that, however, as it may, it is acknowledged 
thattlirough Socrates, and then his synthetic successor and 
favorite pupil Plato, the Italic school, in the full maturity 
of its Attic transplantation, was represented by the Elder 
Academy. But to this succeeded, in analytic hostility, the 
Epicurean sect ; who were followed, it is known, in simi- 
lar order and opposition by the Stoic system. I now need 
scarce remark that this latter triad of sects is but a trans- 
formation of the former and physical schools upon the 
moral basis of man. But I have ventured to touch at all 
upon these high matters thus meagerly, and in a manner, 
I am aware quite open to misapprehension, only for the 
purpose of reaching, if possible, without absolute hiatus, the 
general result of this long elaboration : I mean, the resi- 
dual obstacle both to the harmony of science and the hap- 
piness of man, which has been left outstanding, quite 
spontaneously, by these progressive eliminations ; the 
nature of the spot into which ancient philosophy has ended 
with retruding the ever-springing and bitter fountain of 
human Evil. This spot was the human will in its meridian 
development, and was finally determined by the Stoics — 
who (as the philosophic poet sings ), 

'•Binding nature fast in fate, 
Left free the human will." 

I close then with a brief attempt to condense into closer 
contrast the sjJirit of the three solutions which were offered, 
by the last three schools, respecting the problem upon 
which their systems had successively foundered. 

§ 148. Religion long divides the world of speculation 
with philosophy, as it does the world of action with politics, 
Fr begins with engrossing the lion's share in both depart- 



MVTIIOLOGICAL CYCLE. 359 

ments ; but recedes in boih proportion ably as philosophy 
advances. Thus in politics, we see the progression 
produce in our own day, for example, the divorce of 
Church and State. And, in the order of inquiry, it is 
evinced no less significantly in the concession comparatively 
recent, that the '* Bible was not given by God to teach the 
principles of science." This is virtually interchanging 
the position of predominance which was occupied by reli- 
gion up to the period before us and later. Even tlie 
mediate or Metaphysical philosophy upon which the tran- 
sition is accomplished, had been hitherto but a species of 
religion. Or religion might, if we will, be said to be the 
philosophy of those ages — the ages of imagination, of in- 
fancy. With this theological philosophy, in its infant and 
adolescent stages, the philosophy of Experience may be 
conceived to remonstrate in this wise — perhaps typified in 
the story of Abel and Cain. "While you represented a 
blind Force to be the only rule of right and wrong, of 
good and evil, in the world, there was no objection to be 
made you, as necessity admits of none. When you after 
went on to attribute these vital interests of humanity to 
the caprices of invisible demons, angels, elements, &c., 
you were shielded here by nonsense, as in the former in- 
stance, by necessity. But now you are come to afiirm that 
all things have been produced by an independent being, 
who is infinite in goodness as well as intelligence and 
power r yet evil, you must admit, exists in the world. 
What, then, I still repeat, is the cause"?" 

— Matter, responded the Platonists. Matter is co-eter- 
nal with the Deity, who has made the most of it for human 
happiness that its intrinsic malignity would allow. The 
residue must be got rid of by a process of purification ; 
by mortification of the body, by contemplation of the ideal, 
and thus approximating one's-self to the spiritual essence 
of the Divinity. — But this solution, which as above re- 
marked, was but a refinement of the metempsychosis 
into the terrestrial purgatory of the Pagans, could no longer 
pass upon an Athenian, as it still does upon the Hindoo, 
public. Even the Roman barbarians of the lower empire, 
while continuing the pagan practice, required this amiable 
institution to be transported, theoretically, at the same time 
beyond the grave and beneath the earth. 



360 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

— No, replied the negative doctrine of the Epicureans ; 
it is not matter, it is Chance. Evil, moral and physical, is 
a result of the fortuitous concourse, whether of the vari- 
ous particles of your body, or the local circumstances of 
your life. The former you cannot control. The latter 
you may manage to a certain degree by selecting the 
agreeable and shunning the contrary. Keep yourself 
tranquil, then ; avoid perturbation ; gratify (but prudently) 
your natural desires; indulge your genius; in a word, 
enjoy your ^oodi fortune. 

— This doctrine may be all well in as far as it goes to 
subvert the absurdity of purgation and Platonism, re- 
joined the Stoics. You reconcile indeed the Two Princi- 
ples with a vengeance. But it is precisely because your 
explanation of the difficulty is none at all ; it is in truths 
the negation of all explanation. Our attempt is this :: The 
evil men complain of is attributable neither to matter nor 
to chance. It resides in the ignorance and the excesses of 
man Mmself, diuA results from ihe freedom of his Will. 
As to the objective occasions of it, they were all necessary — 
necessary architectonically — to the eduction of the greatest 
good, even as discord is an element of musis. Only learn 
to know this divine disposition and to nei've your ivill into 
harmony with its universal system^ and you will find evil^ 
be it poverty, pain, or death itself, to have no reality in the 
order of Nature. 

§ 149. This was the greatest as it was the latest concep- 
tion of the Greek mind. Of it died the Social or hero- 
worship of the first Cycle. And, with the exhaustion of 
this Idolatrous and final stage of Heathenism, expired in 
turn the civilization of Greece ; as the Egyptian did, we 
saw, upon failure of the second and Fetichistic. To re- 
vive, therefore, it must, as usual (§ 22), return to the 
earth, and reassume the infant form of theology. But 
this was manifestly impossible, amid the philosophical 
schools of Greece. And so, naturally pressing towards the 
point of least resistance, the popular sentiment would turn 
abroad for a more propitious, a ranker soil. 

This soil was duly ready in the contempoi^ary capital 
of the world, which at the time was a lazaar-house of 
all miseries and a museum of all superstitions. Here there 
could have been no objection to the installation of a new 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 361 

god; it was only requisite that he should enter, upon equal 
footing wilh all the rest. This, however, could comport 
with neither the spirit of the epoch, nor the wants of the 
oppressed, nor the arbitrary and exclusive nature of the 
principle to be embodied. The god demanded by these 
joint exigencies must represent the Cycle of Will as either 
casting off, or eluding, the oppressions of the Cycle of Force; 
must be the god, therefore, not of a family, an aristocracy, 
or a nation, but of the enslaved multitudes of all mankind — 
whose sorrows and sufferings he must be supposed to have 
experienced, in order to feel their entire bitterness and 
mete them a full reward. This was the popular solution 
of the problem of Evil. But before attaining to such dis- 
tinctness, which must be the revelation of the god himself, 
it was requisite that the latter should be invented or iden- 
tified. Hence, accordingly, the groping of the public 
mind to this effect during the twilight of the great transi- 
tion which introduced the Christian era. This vague pre- 
sentiment found various vents, it is known, in the cele- 
brated verses of the Sibyls, the effusions of the poets, and 
was recorded by several historians. It is notorious that 
some of the Sibylline verses were so remarkable in this 
respect as to be considered forgeries of later times to 
maintain the divinity of Christ. But though this may be 
true in part, it but enforces the original fact ; as every 
counterfeit presupposes a reality. As to the poets, it is 
needless to mention the pointed allusions of the fourth 
Eclogue of Virgil. I shall only cite, as perhaps le^s 
familiar, a single passage from Ovid, who makes Ochirroe 
prophesy in the following singular terms. To preclude 
distrust, the semi-reverend Addison will be responsible for 
the translation. 

Once as the sacred infant she surveyed, 
The god was kindled in the raving maid; 
And thus she uttered her prophetic tale — 
" Hail, great physician of the world, all hail ; 
" Hail mighty infant^ who in years to come^ 
*♦ Shalt heal the nations and defraud the tomb : 
" Swift be thy growth, thy triumph unconfined I 
" Make kingdoms thicker and increase mankind 
" Thy daring art shall animate the dead^ 
" And dratD down thunder on thy guiltless head : 
" Then shalt thou die. But from the dark abode 
" KisE UP VICTORIOUS and be twice a god." 
31* 



362 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

The reader will bear in mind that this vv^as written 
some half a century before the birth of Christ. Had the 
poet been a Jew, however, I could not have alleged the 
prophesy, as it would in that case be exempt no doubt, 
from the laws and inferences as of reason. But coming 
from a very uncircumcised Gentile, and addressed to a 
similarly profane public, the circumstantiality and spirit of 
the description, combined, must be allowed to evince a 
state of general feeling the most strikingly conformable to 
that which has been just foreshadowed by the theory. — We 
have the god in the state of infancy, and to be born of a 
virgin. He is to suffer innocent, and for his goodness to 
mankind ; to suffer even unto death, ^ut he is to triumph 
over the grave, and be again the god he was before. For 
the imaginary personage of the poet was iEsculapius, the 
god of medicine, under the Physical Cycle. It was but an- 
other instance, then, of the old affinity between religion and 
physic, that the moral ^iEsculapius too should be supposed 
to redeem through the healing art. On the whole, then, if 
this passage be considered with due reflection, and from 
the historical point of view in which it is presented by the 
foregoing remarks, it will be found difficult, I think, not to 
conceive the fabrication of a Messiah inevitable, had the 
true one not made his timely appearance. 

§ 150. But there was another circumstance of the age 
whereby such an issue might have been singularly favored. 
Among the miscellaneous adventurers, from all known na- 
tions, who were at that time floated into the colluvial city 
of Rome, was a race distinguished or rather stigmatized 
for eccentricities so peculiar as to have made it at once the 
enigma and the aversion of all the others. Originally a 
handful of nomad tribes, settling down into the agricultu- 
ral state, on a small and sterile district adjoining the Ara- 
bian desert ; in the next place, and more than once, car- 
ried off, as a boy does a bird's nest, in the baggage train 
of foreign conquerors returning home through its little ter- 
ritory, and by them retained for several generations in 
bondage ; afterwards running a career of internal anarchy 
and exterior obscurity, until brought at last into notice by 
the conquest of Rome, through whose fingers it had hith- 
erto slipped in grasping the empire of the world ; such 
was the humble history of the singular race in question. 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. S63 

Yet this pitiful people had retained not only the pretension, 
common to all barbarians, of being the most ancient or 
eminent of mankind; the Jews had, moreover, the unex- 
ampled arrogance of assuming to be the sole depositories 
of civihzation in its perfection, and of religion in its purity, in 
short to be the only sublunary concern of the only true God. 
True, they were not powerful now ; this could not well be 
dissembled by even Jewish imagination. But to compen- 
sate for the servile present, the dominion of the entire earth 
was owned by their patriarchal fathers in the unrecorded 
past, and was to be restored to the nation, as they were 
assured divinely through their prophets, by an avenging 
and conquering offspring of the royal house of David, 
Charged with this ideal embodiment of praeternatural ven- 
geance and hope, it was that the wrecks of the Jewish 
tribes were brought at the period before us to Rome. 
They mingled, as they have ever after done, with the low- 
est populace of the city; who, predisposed by the fellow- 
feeling of enslavement and ignorance, would have been 
easily inoculated with the expectation of the Jews, even 
though the boon were now suggested for the first time. 
But when the Messiah ajopeared to be but a counterpart 
of their own long-expected ^sculapius, the concurrence 
would naturally kindle into the enthusiasm of certainty. 

§ 151. Nor was this all. I have represented the problem 
of the age as involving not only the remedy, but also the 
cause, of moral Evil. To the latter effect, too, the same 
singular people supplied, accordingly, a solution no less 
seasonable than the preceding. It had nothing indeed of 
those elaborate speculations of the Greek systems, about 
elements, or ules, or atoms, or even ignorance. It was a 
story of the incondite style and structure of those of ^sop, 
and thus adapted exactly to the mental infancy of the new 
era. (I should have excepted from the resemblance that 
the tale in this case was, of course, a fact.) It was said to have 
been deliyered by Moses, the inspired lawgiver of the 
Hebrews. God (so it ran), after creating the world out of 
nothing, formed among other things the two primordial 
parents of all mankind. He placed them in a pleasure- 
garden, which they with their posterity were to occupy 
indefinitely, exempt fi'om death or even disease. This bliss 
was, however, suspended on the condition that they should 



S64 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZAIION. 

not eat of the fruit of a particular tree, planted temptingly 
before them. It was the tree, not of ignorance, as a pro- 
fane vStoic would have made it ; it was named " the tree of 
knoivledge^^ — that fatal upas of the priesthood. However^ 
as might have been expected, the woman was tempted, by 
a certain serpent, to eat of the forbidden apples ; and, luring 
her consort into delicious complicity, thus brought death into 
the world and all our woes. Such was, in fact, the slim and 
unpretending expedient by which civilization was lifted out 
of the dilemma, or as I have imaged it the dead lock, of the 
Stoic fatalism, and relaunched upon the stream of Christiani- 
ty. And assuredly the supernatural origin of the latter 
system could have no stronger proof than an efficiency so 
disproportional to the means, if the Mosaic theory had 
nothing more in it, than has ever yet, I believe, been 
pointed out, by either the piety of its friends or the pro- 
fanity of its foes. 

But it really possesses that which we saw wanting to 
all the Greek theories just surveyed ; or rather which, 
though present, the philosophic forwardness and aristo- 
cratic destination of these theories did not permit them to 
present in the infant form alone accessible to the enslaved 
multitude, the lowest stratum to be now regenerated. 
This happy peculiarity is nothing less than an affinity or 
rather identity, of principle with the Moral Cycle. The 
principle of this epoch is the Will, And the primary or 
theological method of applying it must, we also know, 
impersonate it into a sovereign and exclusive god. Let 
us now observe how far these exigences of the people and 
the age in question had been embodied in the story of 
Adam and Eve : — 

1st. This memorable pair are said to to have brought 
Evil into the world by an act of disobedience, that is to 
say, resistance to Will. 

2d. No reason for the prohibition is either vouchsafed 
or visible (for Satan's suggestion is of course a sham) ; a 
circumstance exhibiting the principle in greater purity and 
peremptoriness in proportion as the injunction would ap- 
pear tyranniccd and trifling. No god of the Greek mono- 
theists could be imagined capable of imposing any such con- 
dition ; for they were abstractions, we have seen, of order, 
or intelligence, or reason. Whereas the god of the Jews 
and the early Christians, like the ignorant or anarchical in- 



MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. 365 

tellect of his worshippers, must be conceived a being of 
passionate and capricious will. In another aspect, 

3d. While the cause of Evil, the vAtj of Plato and 
Pythagoras, was matter; the uU of Moses was a moral 
essence named sin. And this sin, whether original or ad- 
ventitious, was transmissible; which was a kindred symboli- 
zation of the metempsychosis. 

4th. We have seen the systems of all sects, under the 
Physical Cycle, subordinate man to the supremacy of 
nature ; and I have shown that the Moral Cycle must do 
precisely the reverse. Quite accordingly we find the 
author of Genesis, for the first time perhaps in the history 
of speculation, representing the physical universe as made 
for the purposes alone of Man. 

I submit whether, if it had been the deliberate design 
to frame a system upon both the principle and point of 
view assigned the new epoch, it would be possible t© 
concentrate its entire spirit more significantly within ai* 
equal compass, than has been done in this Mosai© 
story. Indeed intention the most ingenious could never 
have done the thing so well ; it could be only instinct, the 
collective instinct of an era. 

In fine, if this theory of Evil be thus explainable by 
natural laws, I may be challenged to prove it also in the 
aspect of method, as well as of principle. In Greece we 
saw the contemporary systems all resolve themselves into 
three sects, at the same time mutually conflicting and collec- 
tively co-operative ; and I have represented the fact to be 
universal. The Hebrew system, therefore, although rudi- 
mental in point of speculation, should have left some 
traces of a similar division. Accordingly I need but men- 
tion, first, the sect of the Sadducees, professing the primi- 
tive and literal materialism of the Physical Cycle. Thea 
the Pharisees and Scribes, famous for innovating and in- 
terpreting, that is for analyzing, the Scriptures, and who 
gave to Christ the same cavilling trouble that the Sophists 
gave to Socrates. Finally, the Essenes, who were the last 
or the synthetic school, and from whom issued, quite char- 
acteristically, the divine author of the new Covenant. 

And so the reader sees that the theory has kept its 
word with him to the last, even unto subjects where he 
scarce expected perhaps to find it realized. But Revela- 
tion, we should always remember, was designed to en 



366 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

lighten the ignorance, not to alter the laws, of the human 
mind. 

§ 152. Sciences. But while the human mind was thus 
wandering chartless in the regions of physics and ethics, 
it should have gained, the theory also teaches, a scien- 
tific foothold, in the simplest series of natural laws, termed 
the Mathematical. 

Now Pythagoras, whom we saw typify the transition 
basis o^ relation, (§ 145) is also notoriously the first to have 
theorized on the law of Number, which we know to be 
the simplest and so the first known of natural laws. It 
became, in course of a century or two after, systematized' 
into the science of Arithmetic; which might thus be 
termed the Ararat of human- Reason. About the latter 
date has been attained the next of the three relations, which 
is familiar to us as Quantity or extension ; as if the earth or 
the universe with which man had previously confounded 
himself, now rose upon his contemplation in more objective 
amplitude, as he receded up the opposite acclivity of the 
second Cycle. The relation of quantity reached its ab- 
stract generalization in Plato, and soon after, its methodi- 
zation in the well-known Elements of Euclid. The notion 
is, I am aware, that the science of geometry, as indeed all 
other arts and sciences, was filched by the Greeks from 
the Egyptians (with our pious ancestors, it used to be the 
Jews) ; but the repetition of such absurdities only proves 
the ignorance still prevalent respecting the precise and posi>- 
tive character of science. The third and final relation is Fig- 
ure, in the sense explained in the second chapter of Part the 
First of this volume. Its aspect of motion closed in the trea- 
tise on Equilibrium of Archimedes. Finally, I have repre- 
sented astronomy as but an embodiment of those three rela- 
tions. It should therefore be posterior in its scientific inci- 
pience. And in fact it was about a century after that the 
illustrious Hipparchus commenced the positive investiga- 
tion of the heavenly bodies. 

I can give but this meagre abstract, from an ample dis- 
cussion of the subject. If for nothing else, it will serve 
to show, by its material contrast with the bulk of the volume, 
the real proportion of the part of Science to that of error 
and empiricism in the long epoch, here concluded, of the 
Mythological Cycle. 



PART III. 

METAPHYSICAL CYCLE 

MTRODUCTOKY. 



§ 153. In obedience to the progressional law of succes- 
sive predominance, the arrangement of our heads of in- 
duction into Arts, Institutions, Systems under the pre- 
ceding Cycle, must, in the present, be transposed into that 
of Systems, Institutions, Arts. 

This it will be remarked is a complete reversal of the 
order. But so is the new epoch an exact reversal of the 
old, according to the fundamental principle of the theory. 
The theory, then, is affirmed, in turn, by the propriety of 
the inversion. For the latter is evidently consonant to 
familiar history; which tells us, that for the first ages the 
Christian era presented, in institutions and arts, but disor- 
ganization and decay; while it was productive of systems 
(such as they were) without number. It is needless to 
say, the earliest were, as usual, religions : another historic 
coincidence to be added to the tissue. So that by this 
well-tried fidelity to the order of nature, our induction 
may glide spontaneously from one to the other Cycle, and 
now proceed without material break in its theological train. 

But it will be first convenient, by way at once of re- 
capitulation and introduction, to contrast summarily the 
two periods, and in this perhaps the most familiarly char- 
acteristic of their aspects. 

§ 154. The chief features of distinction would all re- 
solve themselves fundamentally into the two sources which 
supply the main division of this work, namely opposition 
of Subject-matter, and inversion of Method. Heathenism, 
as we have seen, proceeded upon the positive basis of 



368 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

physical Nature, and in the explorative order of Analysis. 
Christianity, as we shall see, upon the negative basis of 
spiritual Man, and in the dogmatic order of Synthesis. 
The former was the Natural History of religon. The lat- 
ter, its theoretical systematization. This deep and double 
difference — material and formal — would explain, I think, 
(among many other things long abandoned as insoluble) 
every distinguishing peculiarity that has been ever found, 
or even feigned, in both or either of these two great orders 
of popular speculation. 

One of the most conclusive to the purpose and im- 
portant in itself would be the distinction, now so much 
agitated among the rationalists of Germany, between the 
principle of the Myth and the Legend. The precise defi- 
nitions of both are a direct deduction from the theory. But 
as I have backed it with a critical exposure of the errors 
both of Strauss and his opponents, on the subject, the whole 
must, together with other more elaborate examples, be 
omitted, to pass for the present, to less recondite criteria. 

Suppose, then, the contrast were to turn upon the 
moot point of toleration — a matter which has, from Tacitus 
down to Voltaire, been made so severe a reproach to the 
Christians. Why did the Heathen permit a rival god, 
while the Christian persecuted a dissenting brother? 
Our theory explains the contrariety, with the precision 
of a logical necessity. It was first and fundamentally, 
because the one was a religion of analysis; the other 
was a religion of synthesis. The former faith, pro- 
ceeding from particulars to generals, and so dispersed 
among a multitude of independent and ever varying 
powers, had scarce ever attained the consistency of even 
a national creed, and never asserted a general criterion of 
doctrine : heathenism never had a church as distinguish- 
able from the state. It had, therefore, neither the power 
nor the pretext to persecute, and consequently no occasion 
for, no idea of, toleration. Christianity, on the contrary, 
proceeded from a supreme principle, the logical legacy of 
its heathen predecessor. Upon this centralized and in- 
fallible authority of mono-theism or rather mono-thelism, 
it built synthetically a code of doctrine and instituted a 
church ; both, of course, absolutely universal, exclusive, 
and obligatory. There was here then a rule of orthodoxy 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 369 

and a right of compulsion : there was, therefore, dissent 
and heresy, intolerance and persecution. 

The contrast will be farther illustrated in its conformi- 
ty to the theory, and, at the same time, shown not to owe 
its cause to any praeternatural pretensions of the later 
religion, if we compare it with the synchronous conditions 
of the state. Thus the savages, who in the infancy of the 
Mythological Cycle, have each his proper guardian god, im- 
agined and allowed to be independent of every other — evea 
as men, in the analogous infancy of the Scientific Cycle, 
pretend to have each his own guiding " opinion" and be 
governed but by his own will — those savages, I say, were 
in like manner political masters each of himself: that is, 
they represent that primitive absence of all social authority 
which I have termed an elemental] democracy. And 
even after authority had organized itself into the aristo- 
cratic form, the reigning deities then became, like the 
privileged of their worshippers, only the more tenacious 
of equality, the more liberal of hospitality as between the 
members of the local class, or the international classes of 
the general order. Hence the gods of foreign creeds 
were received without demur; just as, even at this day, 
the nobility of Europe will recognize as upon equal foot- 
ing a brother of the blood baronial, whether from their 
own or a foreign state, and though a beggar or barbarian. 
While, on the other hand, the serfs in the same communi- 
ties are observed to assume towards each other nationally 
—-as we also see the plebeian coteries of a democracy do 
socially — somewhat of the kitchen airs and exclusiveness 
of an upper servant towards his fellows. But Christianity 
was, spiritually, a universal serfdom ; that is to say a uni- 
versal despotism. 

This very natural account of the intolerance charged 
to Christianity would equally serve in turn to explain 
several other particulars, for which the system has been 
quite as ignorantly praised. For instance, it is passed 
into an historical truism that the Christian Church has been 
a democracy ; which was for want of distinguishing between 
the anarchical equality of this political condition and the 
dead-level equality of serfdom which marks its next-door 
neighbour of despotism. Christianity is also usually cred- 
ited with the abolition of ancient slavery. The thing is 
83 



SVO YESTIGES OF CIVILlZATIOIs-. 

not true in fact ; nor does it appear in modern times ; on the 
contrary, the most strict adherents of the Christian sys- 
tem, the Catholics, are seen to be the most favorably dis- 
posed of all our religious sects, to the institution of slavery, 
in this country. But vs^ere the pretension really founded, it 
would be equally true that the system substituted a slavery 
of a darker die. In the Physical Cycle, the body, the phys- 
ical man w^as enslaved ; in the Metaphysical or moral Cy- 
cle, it was the moral man, the mind. But neither the aboli- 
tion of the former slavery, nor even the production of the 
latter, is truly to be ascribed to Christianity ; any more at 
least than the limb can be said to produce its secondary 
branches, which draw their vitality like itself, from the earth 
aiid atmosphere. And the same philosophy which teaches 
us to acquit both the Christian and Heathen religions alike 
of blame or praise in the causation of either slavery — the 
latter being in fact concomitant effects of the respective cy- 
clical evolutions — this larger philosophy, I say, would also 
forbid to pronounce slavery itself to have been an evil in 
either form, in its season , The motives of the human en- 
slavers were malignant, if you will. But perhaps those mo- 
tives were the means of nature in effecting a beneficent end. 
This end was to subdue in order to subordinate ; and sub- 
ordinate in order to civilize. But how else were the multi- 
tude to be subordinated than successively in this wise : in 
the first Cycle, through the body, by force, and to man ; in 
the second, through the passions, by fraud, and to God ; both 
probations being progressively preparatory to the third and 
final Cycle, which subordinates men to the laws of nature, 
through reason, and by science ? 

§ 155. The various contrasts between Heathenism and 
Christianity, thus aptly explained by the theory in its as- 
pect of method, would result no less precisely from the 
conceptual Principles of the same periods. For example, 
in the Heathen Cycle the human will was held to be sub- 
ject, either inertly or irresistibly, to the physical forces of 
nature, or rather of its imaginary rulers : to punish non- 
belief would have been therefore deemed absurd. But 
when the moral era hoisted man himself into ideal supre- 
macy over the universe, and made the will be imagined 
free — not merely in the qualified sense of the Stoics, but 
as independent of all motive and uncontrollable by evi- 
dence — in this hypothesis, to punish a divinely inhibited 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 371 

belief or disbelief must appear perfectly legitimate, and 
even beneficent according.to the object. For if men might 
believe or nut at pleasure, they might be made to believe 
as they ought; and persecution to this end became as 
meritorious as prayer. In fact the former was the more 
natural means in proportion to its plainer cogency ; and it 
is accordingly found inextinguishable wherever the Cluis- 
tian priest has power. So that it seems what the other 
sects impute reproachfully to the Roman branch, or rather 
trunk, of the system, is the best proof of its superior or- 
thodoxy, and of their heresy or their weakness. When 
first dissevered from the Church, and still impressed with 
her organic sympathies, every fragment of the hydra shot 
forth the fanged head of persecution. And if they are 
now become really tolerant, it is because their faith, begin- 
ning in negation, is fast verging towards nonentity ; while 
the Christian germ ferments still vital in the bosom of the 
mother, perhaps awaiting the new spring of a European 
despotism. In fine, so necessarily consequent are religious 
intolerance, mental tyranny and physical persecution upon 
both the principle and point of view of the Christian hy- 
pothesis that, for my part, I must doubt either the sincerity 
or the intelligence of any Christian who would refuse even 
to roast a fellow-creature, at the expense of a few moments 
of bodily suffering, to save the soul of the victim himself, or 
tliose of others through his fate, from burning in hell to 
all eternity. 

§ 156. Both the method and principle of the two 
Cycles respectively will be also perceived to have shaped 
the following collection of contrasts ; which for brevity 
I must throw together, rather miscellaneously, into a 
last paragraph. It is from its structure of synthesis that 
Christianity is a rule to be practised ; and Heathenism, for 
the contrary reason, was a ijrohlem to be divined. Admire 
the master of the universe, he is one and omnipresent, 
was the formula addressed to the initiated by the high- 
priest of the Greek mysteries : the exhortation of the 
Christian ritual is to adore him, and ohey. Speculatively, 
the Heathen system was a cosmogeny, it sought the origin 
of the World ; the Christian was (so to speak) a homo- 
geny, it turned upon the origin of Man. The civilization 
of Heathenism was a mathematical civilization, it ran 
upon the more obvious relations of matter, and thus the 



S72 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

primary generalizations of the mind, upon number, figure, 
proportion ; Christianity, on the other hand, represents a 
moral civiUzalion, and proceeded upon the more compli- 
cate phenomena of the heart and will. In point of internal 
economy the opposition is throughout the same. Heathenism 
offered sacrifices ; Christianity administered sacraments. 
The mysteries of the Heathen initiated into doctrines ; 
the Societies of the Christian novitiated into practices. 
The former system could content the infant curiosity of men 
w'lih prophesies ; under the latter, even Jews had the in- 
credulity to ask for a sign. Hence the Heathen was a re- 
ligign founded upon oracles; the Christian, a religion 
founded upon miracles. The former had diviners to fore- 
tell events hy inspiration ; the latter had doctors to ex- 
pound decrees by authority. Philosophically, also, this 
contrast of view continues. Christianity was a ni<nia ; 
Heathenism, a rrojcna. The analytic spirit of the latter 
sysem was inquisitive throughout, from the pondering of 
the theosoph upon the egg of chaos, in quest of the origin 
of the universe, down to the prying of the augur into the 
pecking of a hungry chicken, for the result of a battle or 
the fortune of a journey : the dogmatic spirit of the other 
system was only inqziisitorial ; knowing already whatever 
it was lawful to know respecting this world as well as the 
next, it consequently made faith and wrJcs the proper 
concern of the Christian, whether he petitioned his saint 
or paid his parson. Morally too, in fine, the same distinc- 
tions still. With the Heathen, prudence (meaning fore- 
kno'/ ledge) was the mother of all the virtues; with Chris- 
tianity, it was obedience, humility — humility, the heroic 
virtue of the imperious epoch of a God of will. Know, 
said Heathenism, in even the sublimest of its precepts — 
know thyself. Love, said Christianity, with an import 
duly deeper — love one another. And in this twofold tran- 
sition — from curiosity to conduct, and from the selfish to 
the social — we have perhaps the profoundest conformity 
of all ; a conformity not only of the religious systems thus 
compared with the principles assigned the two correspond- 
ing periods; but also the higher conformity of those 
periods themselves, in point of succession, with the order 
of cyclical progression laid down in the theory ; and of 
which, having now established the first and Physical divi- 
sion, I proceed to test, in turn, the second and Ethical. 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 3 73 

CHAPTER I. 

PJiilosophy of the Christian Religions. 
CHRISTIANITY. 



§ 157. It is interesting to reflect that, several centuries 
before Christ, the Greek philosophers had, we see, attained 
to the pure monotheism which, perhaps later, was revealed 
from heaven to the people of Israel. Some of these hea- 
thens seem to have known, quite as well as Moses himself, 
that all things were made by one god, and a god of om- 
nipotent goodness. Like good logicians, therefore, but in- 
different prophets, they sought to silence the popular cla- 
mour for a semi-spiritual ^sculapius, by demonstrating, that 
there could be no objective or original evil in the world; 
that the affections we call maladies are but arbitrary crea- 
tions of either the fancy or the fault of man himself, who is 
constantly dislocating, or deluding himself, from his rela- 
tive position in a perfect but multiplex whole ; and that 
these maladies, such as they were, are consequently to be 
cured, not by the sacrificial proxy of a self contradictory 
providence, but by men's own efforts to dispel their igno- 
rance and rectif}^ their lives. 

But the Mosaic story, more in the spirit of its audience 
as well as inspiration, taught, on the contrary, that this 
great whole was made, not only by the goodness of God, 
but also for the sole purpose and pleasure of man. Now 
this new destination completely precluded, it is clear, the 
pagan apology for providence. Accordingly the Hebrew 
prophet supplied an exculpation quite his own. God in 
six days, he had told us, created all things, and pronounced 
emphatically, upon each day's work, that " he saw it was 
goodP No evil could therefore have possibly crept into the 
composition. Whence then the too manifest existence of 
32* 



374 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

this leaven in the world ? It was introduced, as already 
stated, mystically, metaphysically ; by an act of disobe- 
dience, of wilfulness, on the part of our first parents, who 
entailed the misery thus incurred upon the rest of the race. 

This simple escape from the difficulty would never 
have been imagined by human philosophy, no doubt. For 
this hard-headed catechumen would probably have set it- 
self to question — as we shall afterwards see it did, in fact, 
and in the very bosom of the Church — how a Creator who 
was essentially and omnipotently good, should or could have 
given the human will this power of originating evil? Or 
supposing the evil to have come from the ^'serpcnt,^^ whether 
this would not be a mere shifting of the impious implica- 
tion ? For by another peculiarity of the Jewish system, 
more fully developed in the Christian, the tempter too was 
the work of the same supreme hand : and had only " fallen," 
it is to the theory to add, for a like rebellious act of will. 
Overlooking, however, these crude contradictions to the 
attributes of divine goodness and power ; conceding the 
commission or even the creation of evil by Adam, the same 
profane philosophy might farther proceed to ask — Whether 
it was consonant with even human equity to consign to 
eternal punishment, in the former case, the perpetrators 
themselves, for a first and seemingly slight and directly 
suggested offence ; and in the second supposition, not alone 
the peccant parties — in which there would be less to 
shock ; but also the unborn generations of their posterity, 
who had no imaginable part in, and could not possibly have 
helped, the transgression 1 It would, on the contrary, have 
found the thing at least intelligible, according to the heathen 
explanation of the Two principles; for when matter was held 
to be the cause of evil, or as in the symbolic stage of the the- 
ory, disease became synonymous with sin, the transmission 
of the latter infirmities, from parents to posterity, was a no- 
tion not only conceivable but probably correct. But no- 
thing of this dubitation was to be apprehended in ancient 
Judea ; nor has any indeed been exercised in more en- 
lightened places and times. 

But it was neither in semi-savage Judea, nor in 
pelf-confident Greece that the exact idea could take final 
form, which was to reconcile the ofl'ended majesty of an 
arbitrary divinity with the impotent despair of down-trod- 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. S75 

den mankind. It was only where the "wickedness of tem- 
poral empire and the weakness of popular effort were 
both exhausted to the dregs. It was where the power and 
splendor of this world had been found to bring to the en- 
slaved multitude but physical suffering and mental debase- 
ment, crushing beneath the accumulated iniquities, of the 
Cycle of Force, the last of the common ties of expirino- hu- 
manity — it was but under the melancholy inspiration of 
such a crisis as this that the Messiaship could be duly, de- 
finitively apprehended, both in its object of atonement and 
its form of sacrifice. A sacrifice no longer of fruits or 
brutes, as for a patriarch or a tribe ; nor yet of human 
victims, as for an aristocracy or an empire. It was now a 
sacrifice for the first time, at once of the divinity himself, 
made for a spiritual salvation, and this the salvation of the 
poor and unhappy multitude of the ivJiole earth ; or more 
strictly of the Roman world, which, however, passed in 
those days for much the same. And amid this world it 
was, accordingly, that the amended covenant of God with 
man — tJie theological theory of the moral Cycle of Humani- 
ty — was promulgated to the nations, by the ibllowei-s of 
the true Redeemer ; after he had, wisely, himself been 
born, and lived and died among a ruder people. 

§ 158. It is neither essential to the purpose, nor com- 
patible with the limits, of this volume to follow down, in 
considering the religious systems of the present Cycle, the 
triple division — into doctrines, divinities, rites — which it 
was expedient, for explanatory as well as evidential ends, to 
apply to the less familiar and more multiplex superstiiions 
of the preceding. For, in the first place, with respect to 
the Divinities, they are now, in theory at least, reduced to 
one. The reduction, it is true, is but in form or phrase- 
ology : in very fact, the gods of polytheism, both demon- 
ic and heroic, both evil and good, are reproduced in the 
angels, saints and devils of the Christian system. Even 
the Christian trinity is but a similar transmutation of the 
Heathen. But for this reason also, of substantial identity, 
as well as that of nominal unity, it will be needless to lead 
the reader by the hand, through the new pantheon. He is 
only to bear in mind that the personages are now marshall- 
ed, from the state of anarchical crowd in which we witnessed 
them originally, into a more or less regularly subordinated 



876 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

aiTay. — The same ground of exemption from the necessi* 
ty of special treatment applies, in general, to the category 
of Rites ; there is not, perhaps, so much as one in the 
Christian ceremonial, of which the Heathen did not offer 
the mythical prototype. I will therefore only repeat the 
same precautions to the reader. 

But with the article of Doctrines the case is evidently 
different. The personations and the practices which com- 
pose respectively the other heads, remain objectively the 
same facts however varied the point of view; so that once 
made known, it cannot be necessary to repeat them. But 
the point of view, the doctrine is, on the contrary, the 
changeable element, and must consequently be re-exa- 
mined under each new variation. And this not only to the 
end of ascertaining its own actual state, but moreover as 
the ready key to the correlative deities and rites. For 
these sundry reasons, I feel at liberty to dispense our sur- 
vey of Christianity from much tedious, and possibly thank- 
less, exposition, and to confine it to the category of Doc- 
trines alone. 

§ 159. Resuming the investigation, then, where the 
schools of Greek philosophy w^ere found, all three, to fail 
in conducting the popular mind, from out the bondage of 
the empire of Force, into the promised land of the moral 
era, it is proper, first to ask ; Did those Conceptual forms 
or methods, which (as I pretend) are but repeated in an 
inverse order, under each of the Cycles, and whatever the 
subject — did they terminate, in religion, with the Heathen 
speculations, and drop exhausted or superseded, as is com- 
monly supposed ] 

This, in other words, were to ask, if the human intel- 
lect had not changed its essence, in merely shifting its ob- 
ject or rather angle of vision. On the contrary, we have 
seen it to be one of the most fundamental of its laws to 
turn for the explanation of every new idea, to the methods 
already established, and in the order of their antecedent 
prevalence. (§ 34) But historically as ^vell as from the 
nature of the case, it is well known that the Christian doc- 
trine was originally delivered with less regard to system 
than to circumstances. The old theories were to be there- 
fore invoked to rationalize the new teachings. And this 
not solely because of the logical necessity just referred to ; 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 377 

but besides, perhaps, as a piece of polemic tactics against 
the pagan adversary — even as prisoners, captured from the 
enemy, were set in front of a fresh attack. 

But in this process of systematization and fortification, 
the latest and ripest of the Greek philosophies would ne- 
cessarily take the lead. The precedence was, therefore 
due, not only by proximity of time but also affinity of me- 
thod, to the system of the Stoics. Here accordingly, is the 
obvious origin of the first great innovators of the Church, 
known as the formidable sect of the Gnostics. This su- 
perinduction of the Heathen element is also manifest in the 
very name. Of the Heathen religion in general, I remark- 
ed, it was a rvMdia, a knowing ; hence the denomination 
given, no doubt derisively, to those who brought its final 
development into contest or collision with the Christian 
principle o^ believing. Nor is this lineage of the Gnostic 
doctrine more strikingly evinced in its psychological neces- 
sity and significant name, than it also is in its own intrinsic 
nature. Its cardinal principle, it is well known, was the 
"Demiurge ;" that is to say, a subordinate, semi-human, 
and mechanical artisan of the world. But this was pre- 
cisely the Stoic archetype, which was above characterized 
as the earliest germ of the great scientific conception of 
organization. The infant idea was o\\[y personijied, in due 
conformity to the new epoch, or, what comes to the same, 
in accommodation to the Christian embodiment of the Me- 
diator. 

But this idea was destined to fail in the effort of popu- 
lar adaptation, as being prematurely representative of the 
aspect of science : the repulsion of principle overmatched 
the attraction of method. 

It would then be naturally succeeded and supplanted 
by the system of Plato, which we have seen to be at the 
same time next in point of constitutive character, and more 
theologically cognate or congenial. Such was, according- 
ly, the rise, as the name itself attests, of the long rival and 
finally ruling sect of Neo-platonism. This school has in fact, 
given, in virtue of the twofold affinity noted, the larger 
part of its theory to Christianity ; as it also contributed to 
the championship of the early Church, more than one of 
her most able and authoritative Fathers. But while the 
Alexandrian Platonists lent the cast-off court-dress of their 



378 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Heathen theories to the poor and miserable and blind and 
naked, but vigorous, idea of the Galilean fishermen, they 
had to re-fashion it, it is worth remarking, to the Stoic style 
of deduction, in obedience to the synthetic exigencies of 
the era. This logical condition is disclosed characteristically 
in the fundamental tenet of " emanation ;" a notion well 
known to be common, under unessential modifications, to 
the Gnostic and the Neo-platonic patchworks. 

As to the third of the Heathen forms, the Atomic 
system of doubt and destruction, it could evidently have 
no place, in the first instance. It was doubly antagonistic, 
at once to the Christian principle of faiths and the 
Christian want of construction. The absence, accord- 
ingly, of any corresponding sect, in the earlier and unor- 
ganized condition of the Church, serves, again, like the 
omission of the bust of Brutus from the tyrant's pageant, 
to confirm our theory still more lummously than even the 
presence of the preceding. It was, of course, not until 
the theological system had received consistency and at- 
tained establishment, that the metaphysical solvent could 
re-enter upon its mission of negation. Accordingly, after 
making some rudimental ravages under the name of 
Arianism, and other anti-trinitarian dissect iers, it is found, 
precisely with the definitive organization of the Church, 
or during the fourth and fifth centuries, to take its true 
character of will, in the so-called heresy of the illustrious 
Pelagius. 

Thus spontaneously, and with the utmost historical 
precision, do we find the ancient order of speculation link 
itself on to the new. The means are also seen to be the 
three universal ligamentary processes of method. In fine 
the Will-principle of the new epoch is likewise discern- 
ible, in all three results, of Gnosticism, Neo-platonism, and 
Pelagianism; though clearly developed, of course, in 
only the last, for the reason of maturity just indicated. I 
am now to show — but summarily and selecting the lead* 
ing examples — that not merely these, but all the other 
sects and systems of the Christian era would resolve them- 
selves, with the same facility as did the schools and doc- 
trines of Heathenism, into one or other of these successive 
methods — synthetic, analytic, and logical — as operating 
upon the Cyclical principle of the Will, and under the 



METAPnYSICAL CYCLE. 379 

dualistic antagonism of Motive. But before proceeding, 
it will be proper to sketch the complementary transition of 
this latter element of the theory from the ancient, into the 
actual, Cycle. 

§ 160. Under the former period, we saw this fancied 
strife between the opposite attributes of Evil and Good 
pervade and divide the entire succession of divine dynas- 
ties and doctrines; from its real root in the double senti- 
ment of pain and i^^easure, of fear and appetence, along 
through demons and gods proper, through good and evil 
stars, through Tartarus and Elysium, through Fortune 
and Fate, etc.; until the generalization came to culmi- 
nate, in the theological order, with the ov and the vh] of 
Plato. 

Now this general bi-partition should, according to the 
theory, be found, like the methodic doctrines, at work 
in turn upon the Christian idea. The characteristics of 
the result should be principally these : First it would not 
be a theory of causation, as exclusive of its heathen com- 
petitors ; it must be a system of classification comprising 
the essence of all three. It would thus appear to amalga- 
mate, for example, the eons of the Gnostics, the emana 
tion and modified metempsychosis of the New Platonists, 
and the Pelagian hostility to the doctrines of the Old Tes- 
tament. Its full develojDment would consequently coincide 
with, in point of time, and produce in fact, the fourth or 
generic sect, as the ensuing stage of the progression. 
Again, this dual system could no longer be represented 
by the brute Matter and abstract Goodness of the Greek 
metaphysics. It would now adapt itself to the personal 
or Man basis of the new epoch ; and this by a succession 
of media. It was above illustrated, in distinguishing the 
legend and the myth, that the whole transition we are here 
detailing, like all others involving organical progression, 
took place, by a reciprocal overlapping of the Cycles, — 
the synthetic and moral period retro-acting with its form- 
alism upon the physical in proportion to its decline, and 
the latter, on the other hand, shooting forward its material- 
ism in an inverse and extenuated graduation. Here then 
is an inclined plane, no less commodious than if laid ex- 
pressly, for the passage of the Two Principles to their 
spiritual destination. 



380 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

I can here retain but the final result of a long disqui- 
sition, in explanation of this progression through the prin- 
cipal heathen mythologies, and especially the Jewish sys- 
tem, where, from the importation of ?7ionothcism, the Two 
Principles are found amalgamated : a confusion which ac- 
counts spontaneously for the cruel and choleric character 
of the Good Principle, or god, of the Jews, as this character 
does, in turn, for the ascetic sects and eccentric self-inflictions 
of the early Christians. The result, however, is as the reader 
must have anticipated, the reappearance of the Two Prin- 
ciples, in the famous heresy of the Manicheans ; and ulteri- 
orly its resolution into the Will j^rinciple of the new epoch. 

The Divine Will then, on the one hand, and on the 
other the Human — which latter we found germinating in 
the apologue of the Fall — are the proper on and 2ile of 
the Ethical Cycle. This moral Manicheism I therefore 
now proceed to indicate, through the principal transforma- 
tions of its declining struggles. A struggle destined, we 
know, to terminate in the harmony of Man with Nature 
— the scientific manicheism of Reason and Laws. 

§ 161. At the early stage before us, however, it was 
but just unfolding its characteristic of will. This new step 
would first be taken by the metaphysical principle, in its 
proper quality of aggressor, and by its proper method of 
analysis. The doctrine of Grace, as implying the abso- 
lute supremacy of the Divine Will, and representing the 
synthetic lineage of the ancient Essenes, would be there- 
fore undermined through the means of Original sin. For 
Original sin, as a consequence of disobedience, involved a 
rudimentary recognition of free will. But, freedom of 
the Human Will, in spite of all that has been quibbled to 
the contrary, is rigorously incompatible with the arbi- 
trary sovereignty of the Divine. This antagonism is con- 
fessed instinctively in the doctrine itself in question. For 
why the perpetual and apparently iniquitous transmission 
of Original Sin to the innocent posterity of the sole trans- 
gressors? Because it was felt that if the children of Adam 
were allowed to sin upon their own account, they must 
be also supposed to will, like the parents, independently ; 
consequently each to suffer or enjoy through his own de- 
cisions — which was a double derogation from the omnipo- 
tence of Jehovah. Whereas, in barring personal free 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 381 

will by the entail of original sin, the repugnance between 
the beneficent power of God and the maleficent sponta- 
neousness of Man, was relegated to a single pair of man- 
kind and a single point of eternity, and thus the absurdity 
— which could not be entirely dispensed with — at least 
reduced to its minimum expression. It was the applica- 
tion to this divine drama of the same principle of credi- 
bility whereby the human allowed the ancient expedient of 
a miracle. And so, conversely, the want of analysis was 
here supplied not by a god ; it was, we see, a liomo ex 
machina that resolved the knot of the Hebrew legend. 

Not, I repeat, that this seemingly profound though 
really puerile contrivance was either the invention of men 
or the inspiration of Moses ; but resulted, as before ex- 
plained, from the conjuncture of circumstances. To the 
pressure of the same natural cause, the same critical con- 
dition of the epoch, should be also ascribed the premature 
but implicit conception, the momentary gleam, of human 
freedom, in the "■ fall." When, therefore, the human Will 
attained that distinctness of development which we first 
saw reflected, theologically, in a Divine despotism of Will, 
and which should, at the same time, be represented by a 
metaphysical opposition ; with this event, I say (at which 
we are now arrived), the aggressive principle would se- 
lect, for the reasons just indicated, as its first instrument of 
attack, the tenet of Original sin. 

§ 162. It would not yet, however, employ this doctrine 
to exhibit, as above, the contradiction between itself and 
the Divine will. This would be too bold and broad an 
onset for the age. The ground at first would be intrinsi- 
cal inconsistency. The analytic principle would argue in 
this manner : — If sin was originally committed by man, for 
the reason that the will of the individual was left " free,"how 
can we conceive it transmitted to others without this essential 
of receptivity ? But if the original cause be supposed to 
pass to all, where is the need of a transmission to explain the 
actual and common infection, since each would thus origi- 
nate his own sins, occasion his own sufferings, spontane- 
ously. But if suffering and sin; why not repentance and 
regeneration ? For the intrinsic efficacy which could 
produce the former consequence must necessarily be ade- 
33 



382 YESUGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

quate to both or to neither. If to neither, the Mosaic 
account of the fall is untenable — which would be the hor- 
rible heresy of rejecting in toto the Old Testament. And 
strong in this awful consequence, the metaphysical enemy 
would rest for the present, and would not dare, nay could 
not dream, to pass to the sequel of the dilemma. For this 
is a task reserved for the analytic process in the following 
and Scientific Cycle. The task will consist in evincing, 
that men themselves have been always the authors as 
well of their own redemption as their transgression, of 
their own good as their own evil ; that is to say, not indi- 
vidually, hut In the social aggregate of Humanity . An in- 
duction of fact which exactly tallies, we see, with the 
alternative consequence left above in abeyance. 

I do not seek to dissemble that this horn of the dilemma 
goes to dispose of the New Testament, much as the other 
did of the Old. But this is neither my fault nor my busi- 
ness. I am bound to take things as they turn up in obe- 
dience to my clue ; and have lost the faith, nay lost the fac- 
ulty, so common to most others, of imagining them as pi- 
ously or as pleasantly as I could wish. Sufficient, however, 
to the day is the evil thereof. And the evil at present in 
order would be the denial that the sin of Adam was trans- 
mitted — I mean, of course, in its ??zorcZ character of a deed 
of will — to his whole posterity, to the effect of either 
damning their souls irretrievably or depriving their wills 
of all power of self-redemption. But this merciful doc- 
trine with all the preceding conditions, of time, of topic, of 
raelhod, of principle, is found precisely realized in the 
great heresy of Pelagius. Even in the circumstances of 
inconsistency, predicted by our deduction, this truly pious 
and morally estimable monk has duly stopt short. For he 
adverts to, at all, if I remember, he certainly insists upon, 
the modification of only the elder law and in a tenet then 
becoming too apparently absurd. But he designed nothing, 
he saw nothing, of the consequences of his principle such as 
ihey have been suggested above, and as they had long be- 
fore been penetrated by the logic of Pascal ; who did not 
scruple to affirm, that either Eve had, by eating an apple, 
doomed all mankind to eternal perdition or that Chris* 
tianity is no better than a fable. 

§ 163. But the leading and progressive phase of Po- 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 383 

laglanism would therefore come into direct collision wilh 
the doctrine of Grace. Accordingly, Augustine, the spe- 
cial Doctor of this opinion, is well known to have been 
the great adversary of the moral heresy of free will, as, 
also, of its semi-material predecessor of the Two Princi- 
ples. His extreme position of the " total depravity" of 
mankind is a remarkable recognition of this hostile relation, 
and of the vigour, or the virulence, of the attack. His 
mode of defending it is equally characteristic. He does 
not join issue directly with the adversary ; this is never 
the m.ethod of theologians. It should be owned, however, 
in apology, that having no positive ground of fact, they are 
obliged to abut their reasonings upon the concessions of 
the opponent ; even like those birds of prey that fight in 
the air, and can therefore lacerate with any effect only by 
finding a fulcrum or point of support in the body of each 
other. In this way Augustine had, adroitly but quite 
naturally, availed himself of the second branch of the Pe- 
lagian dilemma. Assuming the absolute necessity and 
exclusive merits of Christ's redemption, he argued, justly, 
backward to the Jewish consequences of the Fall. To 
the same purpose he maintained expressly : That the Hu- 
man will is subject necessarily and in all things to the 
Divine; that man can perform no good action of himself; 
that he is not " free" enough to ever resist the instigation 
to it by God. Of which latter it seems to be a fair conse- 
quence, and was in fact a conviction of this fervid Father, 
that we can also do nothing evil save at the instigation of 
the devil. But he shrunk from the ulterior and equally 
fair corollary, that man must be blameless in the latter 
predicament if he be meritless in the former, and that he 
is absolutely both, of course, if the principle of moral action 
be thus denied him, even to its negative semblance of the 
*' libcrum veto." 

Yet this was the real import as well as the polemic 
attitude of the theological scheme of Augustine. But what 
is more to the present purpose, the system was a close de- 
duction from the orthodox conception of the Divine will. 
And hence the antagonism to the innovation of Pelagius, 
which affirmed, or at least implied what is called the free- 
dom of the Human will. The great multitude, however, 
still preferred to be redeemed and to be ruled, in their 



384 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

celestial as well as earthly interests, by a benevolent des- 
potism. The republican principle of personal will was 
only heralded before its time by the Celtic individuality of 
the British monk. And so the latter, being the weaker 
party, was denounced for a heretic, and Augustine's moral 
fatalism adopted by the Church, under the celebrated 
designation of "irresistible" grace. 

§ 164. The strife, however, did not cease or repose, as 
the human mind did not cease to march, even in the mid- 
night of the dark ages. The free-will doctrine, or rather 
sentiment, was the animating principle of the several 
so-called heresies of succeeding times, known as Scotists, 
Semi Pelagians, Albigenses, &c. ; until, in progress of de- 
velopment, it obtained a partial triumph, and thus assumed 
its proipev title, in the protesta7it Reformation. The dog- 
matic and necessarian principle underwent, of course, on 
the other hand, a succession of modifications to correspond ; 
from Augustine's necessity of grace, which was properly 
theological ; and then Aquinas's necessity of nature, distin- 
guished by the name of '* physical;" to Calvin's necessity 
of logic, which marks the true character of Predestination; 
for this doctrine is a strict deduction from the theory of the 
creation peculiar, as above noted, to Christianity. 

The destined prevalence of the negative assailant is, 
also, obvious to be traced in either series of this correla- 
tive transformation. On the side of Grace, for instance, or 
the Divine will, the ancient stringency relaxes gradually, 
until the principle at last seeks refuge in the subterfuge of 
compromise. We moreover find this extreme stage occur, 
quite duly, in the hands of the last defenders of the true 
dogmatic text and theory of Christianity ; I mean the illus- 
trious Society of Port Royal. For this body, abandoning 
or rather eluding the aspect of cause, which had been 
always the contested because the compulsory element, en- 
deavored to contract the conception of necessary Grace to 
the mere effect; and therefore took for their device the 
famous epithet of '* efficacious." And to crown the con- 
firmation, we find this last fortress of the Divine Will 
again assailed by the subtle foe, in the " sufficient" grace 
of the Jesuits. For this apothegm, no less celebrated 
among the sacred sophisms of theology, imported man's 
independent capability of good works, and consequently a 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 385 

real freedom of will. So that the Jesuits appear to fall 
into the general category of heretics ! But more of this 
hereafter. 

Meanwhile, before we quit this meridian section of the 
Christian era, it may be well, if for no nicer verification of 
the theory, yet for the much needed guidance of the stu- 
dent of history — to identify also the principal media, and 
analyze, what may be called the action of the preceding 
progression, down to the catastrophe of the Reformation. 

§ 165. The analytic principle of Free will, in assailing 
the synthetic despotism of Grace, directed, as we have 
seen, its earliest attacks against the theory ; and was put 
down under the name of heresy, by authority and brute 
force, the sole arguments appropriate to the cause. There- 
upon it turned its operations against the tangible text. 
Professing humbly, and proceeding insidiously, to accept 
the latter as the rule of duty, it began to urge, however, 
the necessity of interpretation. Nor was this to be now 
denied. However low, comparatively, the civilization of 
the middle ages, the Christian society had far outgrown, if 
not in intellect at least in area, the meagre and miscella- 
neous jumble of precepts and practices which suited the 
barbarians of Judea and the populace of Rome : for 
Christianity, it is her pride to own, proceeded, like human 
religions, from the ignorant multitude together with the 
softer sex. (1) So indispensable had, in fact, become, at 
the period before us, this exegetical means of enforcing 
the letter through the spirit, that the expedient has been 
sanctioned, if indeed the example was not set by Augus- 
tine himself, then the living oracle of the Church. 

But of all written law, the revealed no less than 
others, there are principally three modes of interpretation. 
They turn upon either the signification of the language, 
or the intention of the author, or the consistency of both 
the sources in themselves and with each other. This is 
too the logical, and therefore the natural, order of their suc- 
cession. Accordingly, we find historically, in their appli- 
cation to the Christian Scriptures, the first and verbal form 
occupy the primitive ages of the Church. The typical, 

(1) Doubtless, the reason why the prophets of all creeds havo 
agreed in choosing for their favorite emblems the ass and the dove. 
S3* 



386 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the allegorical, the anological schemes of exegesis, carried 
by Jerome and some earlier fathers to the verge, it was 
hinted, of heresy, belong all it will be perceived to this de- 
scription. The final result of the general process, in 
pruning, defining and disposing the scripture text, was 
the system of theology which attained its consummation 
in Augustine, and has been correctly characterized as the 
" dogmatical." 

§ 166. This initial method of interpretation was purely 
grammatical. The second is properly ethical, as conver- 
sant about the j^rinciple of will. Its rise should therefore 
be synchronous with the doctrine of grace, which repre- 
sented the full development of the Divine will. Its origin 
is accordingly ascribed by many to Augustine, the assigned 
organ and best expression of this epoch. The practical 
occasion was evident, and twofold, namely, social and 
ethnographical : the ethical rules of the half-communist 
society of the primitive Christians were insufficient or un- 
suited to the feudal kingdoms of the Middle Ages ; and 
the multitude of these communities then composing the 
Christian empire, with their diversity of usages, languages, 
race and grade of civility, required a farther accommoda- 
tion of the theological code. But the letter was inflexible, 
and the meaning was fixed authoritatively by the fathers 
of the Church. The next resort, then, was to the will 
of the divine legislator. And the alternative was, as usual, 
obvious, and the transition spontaneous. For where the 
law was found inadequate, or injurious, or absurd, accord- 
ing to the established interpretation which supposed it dic- 
tated by a god of passions, it would be felt impossible that 
such could have been the Divine intention, as applicable to 
present and particular circumstances. What then, is the 
intention or will of God in this respect, would be the gene- 
ral question of the new scheme of interpretation 1 And 
the key was, of course, the correlative condition of the 
will of man, his power of prosecuting a plan at the sac- 
rifice o? passion. For I need not repeat that both the 
wills proceed throughout apace, and are in fact, at bottom 
but one and the same thing: The human will is the real 
object, the divine will is the reflected image ; the latter, 
therefore, rests upon and revolves with the former ; or to 
speak strictly, both conceptions reside alike in man him- 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 387 

self, only %he one in his imagination, the other in his expe- 
rience — sources which explain in fine the union of inverse 
prevalence with constant opposition between these Two 
Principles of the Christian Cycle. 

Experience, then, or the current sentiments, usages, 
opinions of the age and community are the real basis of 
this second order of interpretation. The developments 
would be consequently of an ethical or moral character; 
and the process would reach its height, of course, with 
the culmination of the theology of will. And history, 
precisely true, as usual, to the theory, presents a second 
system which flourished at the assigned period, in the 
school and writings of Aquinas, and which then re- 
ceived and still retains the designation of " Moral." 

§ 167. The final form of exegesis, proceeding upon 
consistency, might be termed the logical, or more strictly 
the syllogistic. It was evolved by the analytical excesses 
of the moral method, in its tendency to transfer religion 
from the words of God to the works of man. Its object 
was to co-ordinate and conciliate the two systems, of which 
the former or dogmatical offered an array of major pre- 
mises, and the moral, a magazine of middle terms. The 
synthetic auxiliary of logic was, therefore, alone now 
requisite both to regulate men's actions here, and to rea- 
son out their road to paradise. This spontaneous mention 
of the reasoning process, in the due historical order of its 
succession, announces, by the way, the dawn of the great 
principle of the following Cycle. Meanwhile, as man does 
not produce with toil what he may steal with impunity, in- 
stead of inventing themselves the requisite instruments, 
the doctors of the new code would resort to the store- 
house of Aristotle. I need not indicate the historical re- 
sult, in the theological formation of the tertiary order, 
deposited between the twelfth and the end of the sixteenth 
century, and famous or infamous as the " Scholastic" 
system. 

This infamy really belonged, we see, to the theological 
subject matter, of which the casuistical extravagances were 
only brought into clearer relief by the synthetic simplifi- 
cations of the syllogism. It was a barbarian error of the 
last century to cast the odium upon the adjective process 
(as if it was not the same thing in the demonstrations of 



388 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

Euclid and in the dialectics of Scotus) ; and this while 
the loudest defamers of the " scholastic logic," for exam- 
ple, the English, continued to reverence the inanities them- 
selves which had thus disgraced reason by an unnatural 
alliance. These frivolous fruits of interpretation, then, 
with the abusive practices they naturally propagated, had 
come at last to be apprehended by even the superstitious 
multitude. Whereupon, feeling this broader foothold in 
popular support, the analytic principle would drop the 
mask of casuistry — under the friendly guise of which, like 
the hostile Greeks in the armour of th*3 Trojans, it had be- 
trayed the government of the Divine Will into the hands 
of Human arbitrament — and would resume its native shape 
of heresy and attitude of antagonism, charging the conse- 
quences of its own treacherous operations upon the Church. 
For such is the subtle policy, so to speak, of the great law 
of .Human progress, as I shall presently have a fitter occa- 
sion to specify. For the moment, and not to interrupt the 
deduction, we may assume, that the casuistical spirit is 
identical with the heretical, and re-produces it by the uni- 
versal law of re-action. This spirit, therefore, in its Chris- 
tian symbolization of the Human will, in its analytic ten- 
dency to anarchy as to liberty, and finally in its two kin- 
dred yet contrary directions, should be found, if I reason 
rightly, to constitute the threefold character of the next 
theological revolution. 

§ 168. But this occurs in the great event which has 
been called the Reformation, and which was termed much 
more truly a destruction. (1) That, in fact, the procedure 
was of this nature, is confessed unconsciously, as before re- 
marked, in the contradictory epithet of " Protestant." And 
the result is quite conformable, as witness the thousand 
sects who go on still, not only to sap the hostile fortress of 
the Church, but to subdivide infinitesimally the motley for- 
ces of their common camp. The identity of principle is 
no less manifest than that of method. In proof it will be 
sufficient to cite the tenet of" private judgment," which is 
the fundamental axiom of all the Protestant denominations. 

(1) Logically at all events, whatever it may be theologically, the 
idea of Dryden is quite correct in his courtly compliment to the Epis- 
Bcopal Church : 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. S89 

For what, in truth, is private judgment, in most men, but 
private will ? What is it, in the most deliberating, but a spe- 
cial name for the active choice ; even as the same sentiment 
received, when passive, the appellation of " conscience." 
And so through other internal modes, according to pro- 
gress and point of view. Not only then, is this attribution of 
the self-determining faculty, an assertion of the salvatory 
efficacy of the Human will ; but also the complete individ- 
ualization of the one announces the highest external 
generalization of the other. Whence it follows that the 
revolt of Luther should represent the triumph of Pelagius. 
And intrinsic evidence might, in fact, be multiplied to cor- 
roborate this lineage. But it will be shorter to refer to 
the well-known historical fact, that the head of the Refor- 
mation is admitted, even by protestants, to have fallen, or 
rather risen, into semi-pelagianism. Nor is this a surer 
recognition of the principle than of the progress. For the 
semi is here applied on ground of quantity (so to say) not 
of quality, of obviousness, not of essence. This natural 
error of the age will be rectified by a slight analysis. 

Simple Pelagianism denied Original sin, in order to 
vindicate man's capacity of self salvation. Semi-pelagi- 
anism, a good deal shrewder from the experience of ages, 
seeing that the Jewish institution could offer no real obsta- 
cle — countervailed as it was, moreover, by the Christian re- 
demption — took the course of accepting both the doctrines 
together, while asserting the same sufficiency of the Human 
will. It thus took note of the connexion overlooked, we 
saw (§ 157), by the elder heresy, and struck at both the 
dogmas at once. It was therefore a stride in advance, a 
double, not a " half" heresy. This stage of the innovation 
reached, at the moment of Luther's appearance, its utter- 
most extension, in the person of Zuinglius. But Luther 
went a step farther, or we may be sure he had not won 
the chieftaincy, in the memorable competition of these two 
fathers of the Reformation. This higher refinement is 
found, accordingly, in his peculiar theory of " imputation :" 
which attenuated the whole paraphernalia of salvation, into 
simply helieving that we are saved. For Belief is but 
another of what I have just ventured to denominate, the 
internal modes, or phases of the will ; and is the most ele- 
mentary of the forms given to that Proteus of the human 



390 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

mind. In fine, therefore, Lutheranism is a semi-demi-pe- 
lagianism. It is this quintescence of human free-will that 
is named "justification by faith." 

What (I would probably here be asked), do you forget 
that Luther has, on the contrary repudiated, in the most 
positive terms, the existence of free-will ? I know ; but 
it is equally notorious that he has rejected many things by 
expression, which yet he retained in effect. And ha- 
ving proved this to be one of them, I might rest upon the 
fact, and leave the contradiction as it has been left by eve- 
ry writer before me, friend as well as foe, to be referred 
either to the eccentricities of the man or the inspirations 
of the devil. But having assumed to expound a theory 
which undertakes to account no less for the ravings of a 
madman than the reasonings of a philosopher, and even 
pretends to untangle the tricks of the devil himself, I, in 
particular, am not permitted this commodious solution. Nor 
do I find it at all necessary. The ravings of Luther were 
the reasonings of nature and the results of the age, and 
must thus be easily resolvable into the pre-assigned charac- 
teristics. Of these the last, in fact, remains untested, and 
relates, it will be remembered, to a contrariety of direction, 
of doctrine, analogous to the two antagonistic principles of 
the epoch, which must meet in the personal organ whore- 
presents the aggressive element in its periods of crisis, 
called revolutions. Now here is a prog-nostic which, though 
taken a priori and applicable to all the great reformers, in 
all subjects, would seem expressly prepared to fit, with the 
most curious felicity, the fundamental antinomianism of 
Luther. For this is well known to consist in the implica- 
tion, on the one hand, of Human freedom as at least a con- 
dition of salvation, and on the other, the assertion of a Di- 
vine despotism, so exclusive as to leave man's will no more 
to do, not only in his salvation, but even in his sin, than (to 
use the author's own expression) a stock or a stone. It is 
that the Will-principle of the Cycle had reached, in the de- 
structive form, its utmost tension, its extreme term in the 
time of Luther, and that the latter, as the organ and index 
of the turning-point, must at the next step, of course swing 
back towards the theistic fatalism which I have shown to 
be the true conception of the Christian system of theology. 

§ 169. This strict conformity to the theory might be 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 391 

traced, with like precision, throughout the subsequent his- 
tory of the Reformation. I have space, however, but for 
another and equally signal example. Lulheranism, in its 
posterior and necessarian aspect, could not, it is evident 
reach its full destination, in the person of the author, at the 
peril of making his inconsistency too coarse for even the 
vulgar, and thus impairing his authority with those best 
patrons of new religions. The tendency should therefore, 
gain its extreme verge in a different personage. And the 
new reformer should be different in qualities as well as 
person. Placed remote from the free-will attachment 
which had embarrassed, after having nourished, his prede- 
cessor, he would be one endowed with a mind of much 
more logical compactness, employing the synthetic method 
to repair the ruins of the analytic, and deducing with dog- 
matic rigour, from the Christian notion of the deity, the 
most outrageous consequences which could compromise 
the entire system of theology. And to combine those quali- 
fications, especially in that age, I might almost add the per- 
sonage should be a Frenchman. The reader must per- 
ceive we have an a priori portrait of John Calvin ; with his 
logical eminence of intellect, his co-ordinate rank as a re- 
former, the constructive purpose of his **' Institutes," and 
the candid conformity of his double dogma, of Predestina- 
tion and Election, to the Judaeo-Christian amalgamation 
of the Evil with the Good Principle. 

That in fact, these Calvinistic tenets are a progressive 
sequel of the Lutheran tendency, is also clear from direct 
inspection. The "justification" doctrine of the former 
was the immature forerunner of the more logical notion 
of "election;" the difference being, that the one meant 
salvation in potency (while yet the author denied the Hu- 
man will the power of consummation), the other meant 
salvation in eflect. We see the same superiority in the 
respective notions on the Eucharist; the Calvinists eluding 
the miracle of a Real, by a symbolic presence ; even as the 
Lutherans, by the famous occult syllables *' in, sub, con," 
had before evaded the still more infantile conception of 
the Catholics. It was indeed the usual reaction of this 
extreme advance against the incipient section of the move- 
ment which entailed the long collision between these two 
divisions of the Reformation. 



392 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

§ lYO. Still farther, as a new centre of dogmatic resist- 
ance, it must, according to the same law, provoke a new at- 
tack from the adverse principle : an attack no longer armed 
with the moral poison of " free will " alone ; but already 
introducing the broadsword of reason, the civilized and 
appropriate weapon of the scientific Cycle. In precise 
conformity of time and character we have the sect and 
system of Arminianism. In fine, that Calvin spoke the 
last word of the Christian principle, as just implied, is 
evinced distinctly by his strict vindication of the absolute 
fatalism of the Divine Will ; for what remained for any re- 
ligion to do against this decree ? Also by analogy : for as 
the physical fatalism of the Stoics announced the close of 
the former Cycle, while giving birth, by its iron pressure, 
to the subtle element of the Christian era, so the end of this, 
in turn, would be naturally heralded by the moral fatalism 
of Calvin, and the consequent emergence of Reason. 

But another analogy no less conclusive, and still more 
curious, to the same effect : I have frequently said or shown, 
in the course of this exposition, that all institutions of a tran- 
sitory or unscientific nature — all that are appropriate to 
our first and second Cycles — come to expire under a form 
similar to their original condition, and only reversed as if 
to expose their real inanity. Thus we saw democracy end 
in anarchy ; aristocracy in oligarchy ; monarchy in des- 
potism. In religion we have seen the Heathen begin with 
the Sabeistic conception of Deus est omnia, and end in the 
Stoicism of Omnia sunt Deus. So, then, should likewise 
the Christian systems, — as far, of course, as human. And 
in fact this system, which was based, we saw, on the Jew- 
ish tenet of Original sin, had reached in Calvin the oppo- 
site position of Original salvation ; the former being, also, 
deemed irremissible, as the latter was " inamissible," by 
the good or evil actions of mankind. 

With equal exactness we could explain the thousand 
shadings of the minor sects, which are merely the dying 
vibrations of the movement. But these details of the veri- 
fication I rather commit to the reader, and this not merely 
for want of space or as superfluous to the occasion, but 
also because in a community the most miscellaneously re- 
ligious of the earth, it may be well to leave each believer 
to trace down, by liimself, both the Protestant genesis and 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 393 

progressive grade of his particular denomination. With 
the theoretic part of the data he must, 1 trust, be now 
familiar. And then for the facts, the sects, he might rely 
upon the history (1) of Bossuet; by whom all the leading 
branches are delineated with a native power, to which the 
proverbial hatred of his holy profession could add nor 
eloquence nor acumen. 

§ 171. The mention of this great name conducts us nat- 
urally to the Church which he then avenged and still adorns 
with his genius. For what was the position of the Catholics, 
if the Calvinists had, as shown, become more orthodox, that 
is more faithful to the Christian principle of the Divine 
wiin The difference was this: the Catholics represented 
the principle in a state of arbitrary despotism; the Calvin- 
ists had come to give it an inflexible constitution, to make 
God, in the Gospel language, a law unto himself It was 
constitutional monarchy duly grading the passage of abso- 
lutism to the republican sovereignty of Reason. 

The Catholics, therefore, occupied at that time, as 
always, a place somewhere intermediate the extremes of 
heretical oscillation. But it might well be called an " am- 
biguous middle," in the phrase of the logicians. For what 
can possibly be more equivocal, more unseizable than the 
notion of a special and arbitrary providence ? Here, accord- 
ingly, lies the secret of the comparative perpetuity of the 
Church, and of her plausible pretensions to unity. Insti- 
tutions worn out in the order of nature expire, we see, 
like individuals, of a self contradiction ; that is to say, by 
sinking into antagonism with the cause of their creation. 
But who could fix a contradiction upon the doctrines of 
an absolute will, of which the dictates were at once the 
.sovereign rules of reason as well as of right, and yet inde- 
pendent all of each other, and each of itself, from instant 
to instant ? Not a cabinet of philosophers, much less the 
fold of the Faithful. There is, in fact, no antinomy possible 
in the legislation of despotism. And, then, the Church was 
but the humble and infallible interpreter. So that the 
Canon law of Rome outstripped the Common law of Eng- 
land, in the " glory" of its uncertainty ; and was, no doubt, 
the perfection of religion, as its civil compeer was of reason, 

(1) Hisioire des Variations des Eglises Protestantea, 
34 



394 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION, 

only from a similar inaccessibility to argument. With, then, 
these two convenient postulates (equal to any in the Arabian 
Nights), I mean a capricious God and an infallible Church, 
we need not wonder that " Romanism" has maintained so 
long its constitution. Nor will *'the gates of hell prevail 
against it" (the metaphor is Evangelical) until the "rock" 
upon which it really rests be shivered to the last fragment ; 
that is to say, until the popular intellect of the fag-ends of 
civilization has got sufficiently out of the gristle to be no 
longer capable of finding its own image in an irrational 
divinity. 

But to this vantage ground of principle, the Church 
has been obliged, moreover, to join the mundane and even 
the manoeuvering coadjutor of policy. Although still con- 
vinced that the physical globe has not moved an inch since 
the creation, she became early sensible that the moral 
world was quite effectually in motion ; and that, in conse- 
quence, her relative position upon the pivot of orthodoxy, 
which had a phase for every point of the theological com- 
pass while things stood still," was losing its bearings towards 
the progressing communities she sought to govern. The 
progress, the motion was the work of the devil, no doubt ; 
but then it was not the less necessary to follow, in order to 
control, it. The question was, then, how to steer along 
an invisible and serpentine line, between the extreme 
borders of necessarian orthodoxy and of Pelagian heresy. 
The expedient hit upon was not unworthy of her sub- 
sequent character as politician. To prop her steps on 
either side, she gradually instituted two bodies; of which 
the right or orthodox crutch was termed the Secular 
clergy and the left or heretical was named the Regular. 
The former composed the canonical, the constitutional 
hierarchy, and were the sole legitimate interpreters of the 
" words," the Will, of God. The other consisted of that 
long line of motley associations known as monks, friars, &c., 
of the various orders and societies who passed for being 
merely self-constituted or semi-official, and were confined 
to the practical task of interpreting the " works," the Will, of 
Man. Thus it is, that while zealots and heretics are seen 
to topple towards either extreme, are exclusively for Faith, 
or exclusively for Works ; the Church has been enabled 
to keep her safe " ambiguous middle" by adopting both 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. o9o 

these celebrated ingredients of salvation, and so reserving 
the ample scale of all their relative proportions, over which 
to range for the requisite mixture, according to the temper 
of the times. 

§ 172. This sliding scale of orthodoxy began of course 
with Faith ; which, in fact, was held sufficient in the days 
of the earlier Gospels. The graduation, then, the inno- 
vation proceeded all on the ground of Works. A con- 
clusion strictly consonant to our explanation of the Chris- 
tian system, as operating through progressive encroachment 
of the imputed efficacy of the Human will, upon the origi- 
nal absoluteness of the Divine. For Free-will and Good 
works are, we know, synonymous terms. But the present 
affair is to show how the Church could have first entered 
upon this really heterodox ground, and after maintained 
herself, by the agencies indicated, in advancing along a 
way, which implied a commensurate retreat from tlie posi- 
tion of Faith. 

The task as to the earlier stage was without difficulty 
or danger; and this for several reasons no less curious 
than conclusive. In the fiist place, there was for some 
centuries, we saw, no distinct recognition of the subtle 
connexion between free will and good works, and so the 
latter were adopted as valid evidences of the faith, without 
suspicion of their real character of Greek gifts. Again, 
this oversight was the more natural, that the Church had, 
during the same period, been preoccupied with repelling 
the successive forms of pagan philosophy, and while thus 
prosecuting, itself, the part of analysis exteriorly, could give 
less attention, or even occasion, to the attacks of the foe 
within. It was only when from militant, in her own lan- 
guage, she became triumphant, that the Church would 
find her natural enemy emerge from the mask of works ; 
of which the practice was now consecrated irretrievably 
as meritorious. And here she would find herself lodged 
in a peremptory dilemma between consistency of pro- 
fession and compromise of principle. But in such cases 
the principle or theory is always sacrificed ; for, being the 
course less obvious to the crowd, it is the less dangerous 
to the actors. This is the rule of choice which the poli- 
ticians call expediency y and which the Church in that 
capacity would naturally observe. In strict accordance. 



390 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

we find these various inferences — the hostile declaration 
of free-will by Pelagius, the doctrinal triumph of the 
Church by Augustine, the initial combat between the two 
principles of Human and Divine will, and the compromise 
of the latter in the Augustinian theology — we find, I say, 
all these concur with the utmost exactness, not only in the 
same age but even in the same individuals. But this con- 
cession to the enemy provoked as usual but new exactions. 

§ 173. To meet these it was that the clergy termed 
" Regular" came into request. Intrenched, as above, 
with her standing forces, in the fortress of dogmatism, the 
Church commenced a line of outposts on the shifting soil 
of Interpretation, and manned them with a species of 
volunteer militia, who served as sentinels, scouts, skirmish- 
ers, and even spies. For who could scruple whether 
wile or valour obtained success in the cause of God, and 
against an enemy such as the devil, himself the father of 
wiles and lies'? These were the several associations 
known collectively as casuists ; but which were duly dis- 
tinguished according to the social exigencies that gave 
them successive origin. 

Thus in the infancy of the christian community, where 
the temporal relations of society had all relapsed into the 
sole concerns of the individual, the mode of Good Works 
would be self mortification, and the heroes were accord- 
ingly martyrs and monks. But when the Church, having 
gained the ascendant, brought her theocratic system to 
1 •• ■'^■*^ou the real and natural relations of mankind, it was 
lell that the Gospel injunction of quiting father, 
brother, vife, &c , would not do j and so, to reconcile these 
" degenerate" affections of the human breast with the 
word of God, the former 77mst be palliated with the appel- 
lation of Good Works, and the latter interpreted so as to 
embrace them in that title. Hence arose the communities 
called Friars, whose province in fact comprised the do- 
mestic relations, and professed the dogmatic application of 
the theological system of Augustine — from whom the prin- 
cipal of these fraternities quite significantly takes its name. 

To this primary class of casuists proper, and which 
may be distinguished as the Dogmatic, succeeded, in pro- 
cess of lime and progress of society, the Moral. Here the 
interpretation of the theocratic law had to be extended to 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 397 

the civil or municipal relations; attended, of course, by a 
supplementary almanac of Good Works, at the peril of 
leaving the faithful to think, with the Semi-pelagians of 
those times, that any could be performed without the divine 
sanction of the Church. The casuists of this class were 
the first to take the style of Orders ; they were also dis- 
tinguished theologically by the name of Thomists, after 
Aquinas, who was their oracle, as Augustine had been of 
the Friars, and Aristotle, I might add, became afterwards 
of the Doctors. The latter, by the by, are here omitted, 
not only because the title is individual and intellectual ; 
but also that the bearers originated, as before shown, on 
the synthetic and dogmatic side of the Church, not the 
pragmatical and analytic, which I describe. In this line, 
then, the following stage is much the most familiar to the 
general reader; not only because it is the latest in order 
of time, but also because the most comprehensive, as the 
last in development. 

In fact, although the Moral or ethical school of casuists 
had brought the thrones and territories of the earth under 
the dominion of the Holy See, there was another grade of 
relations more abstract and general than this simply theo- 
logical title. These were the relations between the 
sovereigns and their subjects. They were first pressed 
upon the care of the Church by the Protestant Reforma- 
tion. As long as kings had remained the liege servants of 
the humble Fisherman, and offered no disturbance to any of 
his various revenue nets, — to capitation, dispensatic ' ' • 
dulgence, &c., — so long they were left to govern their C..i . 
tian serfs as they pleased. But when the free-'; ill spirit 
of innovation had reached at last the throne, and monarchs 
began to side with the popular revolt of the Reformation, 
there then became imperative anew species of policy and, 
of course, a class of agents to suit. This policy must be an 
extension of Causistry to public or political morals. And 
such is in fact the precise definition of the system called 
Jesuitism ; which originated duly at this critical period, 
and with that world-renowned body styled the Society of 
Jesus. I shall again have a word to say of the Jesuits and 
their doctrines. In reference to their final part in the pre- 
sent progression, I will only add that its whole spirit, as 
indicated by our theory, is found embodied in one of the 
34* 



398 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

most characteristic of their maxims, namely : ^^ to ait' act 
all and repel noncr Tliis, in fact, is a pregnant summary 
of the aggregate procedure whereby it was sought to keep 
the will of Man in perpetual pupilage to the will of God 
(1), and the march of civilization within the go-cart of the 
Church. And the ultimate consequence of this fatal yet 
necessary policy is perhaps announced in the well-known 
preponderance of this body towards the side of Works : for 
as orthodoxy began, we saw, with placing man's salvation 
in the word of God, so theology should, end with leaving 
him to find it in his own good works. 

And so, we see, that studied wiliness, for which 
Christian Rome and her casuist agents are long a by-word 
to the liberal world, may after all be but the provi- 
dential policy of nature — that policy to which men and 
their little schemes, we have seen repeatedly, are but 
straws upon the stream, good to indicate, but not to 
influence the current. It was promised, however, that 
the operation of this great truth would be more particu- 
larly exhibited in the present subject. And having now 
surveyed the Christian system in its principal forms, 
phases, and factions (with the exception of one or two 
to be after supplied), it seems the place to resolve the 
whole into the general order of civilization and our theo- 
retical laws of Humanity. Nor will this be for the sole sake 
of giving roundness to the exposition. It may also sug- 
gest a lesson more divinely inculcated by the founder, than 
faithfully observed by the followers, of Christianity. It will 
show that, tiue philosophy — the philosophy which Shaks- 
peare's instinct made to find " good in every thing" — the 
philosophy of which I try to sketch an outline in this 
volume, can be both more candid than the Heretics, and 
more charitable than the Church, in receiving these bitter 
combatants both alike into its paradise as co-equal bene- 
factors of mankind. 

§ 174. Progress is the law, if not the life, of all sys- 
tems in the physical and ethical world. In the latter region 
(which bounds our province), it takes the name of reform. 

(1) Meaning, it must be remembered, the interested representation 
of the priesthood ; which is to say, again, the infant imagination of tho 
people. 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 399 

Reform, in all institutions, supposes two successive stages ; 
which, with the fixed state of the subject, before or after 
the change, present the three methodical forms, inductive, 
analytic, synthetic. Popularly the two former are called 
Abuse and Disorder; of which the one is indispensable 
to teach the necessity of change, and the other incidental 
to its accomplishment. Both alike are the proper product 
of the innovating principle ; and the difference between 
them is, that, in the latter result, the innovation has broken 
forth in the physical structure of the institution, whereas, 
in the previous stage, it makes its silent and subterraneous 
way through the other and psychical factor, the public 
mind. It is owing in fact to these illusive peculiarities of 
the process that Abuse has been always charged to the 
side of establishment. 

But really, this side produces nothing, abusive or other- 
wise ; it makes no positive addition to the actual state of 
things ; its proper office — as the political designation well 
denotes — is, on the contrary, confined to conserving. So 
true indeed is this distinction that we find it underlie, 
by a profound mythical instinct, the Manichean division 
of the Two principles: for of these the Good was symbol- 
ized by the immutable and eternal stars ; while the 
created and changing world was the product of the 
Evil. It is thus, too, that in all religions, at least of the 
dogmatical sects, the priests have made Liberty a devil, 
and Despotism a deity. It is thus that, afterwards, the 
unchained people interchange the terms without confound- 
ing them, and make liberty a god, and despotism a demon. 
It is thus that, finally, the philosopher will ratify the same 
distinction, but with the imaginary antagonism then resolved 
into the natural harmony of order and progress, of organ 
and function. 

Clearly, then, the constitution of any and all systems, 
whether under the names of organization or order or god, 
is destined to be preventive, instead of productive, of 
change. That, however, the active element — named func- 
tion or reform or devil, in correlatively inverse succes- 
sion — should be able to cast the odium of its own product 
o^ af use, upon the " sleeping partner," who yielded but re- 
luctantly or unconsciously ; and that the latter should wield, 
in turn, the reproach of disorder with equal effect — this, 



400 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

I repeat, is the subtle yet simple policy of Nature, and was 
indispensable to the advancement or the education of Hu- 
manity. For how else have social institutes subsisted or 
progressed, unless by frightening men alternately from one 
extremity towards the other, through reciprocal imputa- 
tions of corruption and anarchy ? 

This position could easily be illustrated in the three 
stages of social development, theological, metaphysical, 
scientific ; in the three engines of civilization, namely, re- 
ligions or divine laws, governments or human laws, sci- 
ences or natural laws ; and the correlative orders of in- 
structors ; to wit, priests, politicians, philosophers. But 
the several objects of the final class would find their place in 
the following Cycle : and moreover, it must be remarked 
that the representatives of the dualism will come, at this 
period — after a passing strife between men of facts and 
men of theory — to drop their ancient and ignorant recrim- 
inations of each other, on seeing their systematic unity of 
end and existence. Respecting the middle series the ope- 
ration will be exemplified quite spontaneously in the ensu- 
ing chapter on politics. Meanwhile it is but too familiar 
in the pitted factions called parties, which are always 
inter-relatively Radical or Conservative ; and of whose 
nature and number we have here the philosophic origin ; 
and also the explanation why no third party can endure. 
And quite conformable, not merely to the antagonism but 
to the epoch, is the character, moral and mental, of the 
politicians— a sort of crawling, cross-bred, crepuscular crea- 
tures, neither beast nor bird, neither priest nor philosopher, 
but a mulish and malicious mixture of both, deriving 
hypocrisy from the former and profanity from the latter, 
and infesting accordingly the twilight ages that roll between 
those two characters, from the mid darkness to the broad 
daylight of the human mind. 

But our immediate concern is with the first of these 
stao-es ; and here the action and reaction named abuse and 
disorder take the special appellations of Superstition and 
Heresy. Now these two co-elements of religious reform are 
also disposed of already, in the preceding analysis of their 
principal attacks upon the orthodox or conservative prin- 
ciple of Christianity. To the former head belong the se- 
veral series of Casuists; whose overweening attachment 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 401 

to forms and overstepping practice of interpretation are 
probably the traits alluded to, in the very term. The word 
heresy refers, even in the common acceptation, to the cor- 
relative sects of the reaction, the disorder. It will be 
further observed that the words reaction and correhdive 
concur to demonstrate the species of kindred which I have 
affirmed to exist between those two classes of theologians, 
regarded hitherto as the most fundamentally antagonistic 
of all. For who had before imagined that, for example, 
the Protestants and the Jesuits are effectually one and the 
same party, both in princi^Dle and destination, and only dif- 
fered in the mode of operation. For they were actuated 
alike by the metaphysical principle of Human free-will, 'as 
it assumed, in the casuists, the part of undermining from 
within, and in the heretics, that of battering from without, 
the old despotic fabric of Theology. 

§ 175. This beneficent end is, then, not only the ex- 
planation but at the same time the apology, the eulogy, of 
both these parties. Nor has their common and orthodox 
victim merited less of mankind in its day. It only be- 
came oppressive in becoming unseasonable. In the infan- 
cy of the species, as still in that of the individual, the 
requisite is not activity but obedience, not liberty but des- 
potism. Within the family, this first condition of education 
is provided in the relative Force of the parent and Fear 
of the child. But where is it to be found in a community 
of barbarians ? Obviously it can only be, in their own 
vivid imagination; by aid of which the evils they familiarly 
experience are first impersonated into special demons, and 
after abstracted into a general devil, in descending from 
the more occasional to the more habitual of their suffer- 
ings. This formidable sanction is first addressed to the 
fears, and later to the supplementary principle of good, 
which is drawn, of course, in like manner from the other 
twin motive of hope ; even as every pedagogue knows 
the age of presents to be posterior to that of punishments. 
By these means it is that the priest, that is to say the peda- 
gogue of the infant species, has been able to lay the first 
foundation of social " order;" he fixed a point of resist- 
ance against which " progress" has played its lever in the 
early disciplination of mankind. Nor was any other pos- 
sible at the time. Where the parental power is no longer 



402 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

able to force, or the popular intellect fit as yet to induce, 
obedience by the application of known infliction and en- 
joyment, it was imperative to resort to the unknown and 
the supernatural. The civilization of man himself has 
accordingly begun like the mensuration of his planet, by 
the medium of extraneous worlds. I repeat these obser- 
vations, already established at large, to deprecate the indis- 
criminate condemnation of an effete ministi-y, which has 
had its use, we see, like every other — not excepting its 
predecessor and successor, the devil and the politicians. It 
is much more to the purpose of correction, as well as jus- 
tice, to learn to distinguish the abuse. But this consists in 
perpetuating the discipline of the nursery ; its swathing 
bands and go-cart, its ghost stories and fairy tales, wherever 
the mind of mankind, or of any portion of it in particular, 
has. attained to the age of manhood or even of adolescence. 
For the consequence is, to degrade the priestly office itself 
from an elevating enthusiasm into a tricky hypocrisy, and 
thus deprave the public morality into a system of cant, and 
the popular understanding into a jumble of contradictions. 

It is comfort, however, to add, that by the natural 
policy thus slightly indicated, this monstrous mixture of 
things repugnant, is doomed to ultimate self-destruction, 
should the issue be not anticipated by the scientific analysis. 
Like the ancient tyrant, who perished by his own instru- 
ment of oppression, it must expire of the very contradic- 
tion which it thus imposed upon the human mind. And 
there remains, to close our survey of the religious system 
of the Moral Cycle, but to show how its synthetic rem- 
nant, the old and ** apostolic" Church, must sink at last 
through the spreading interval of her own "ambiguous 
middle" — with the usual fate denounced by the adage 
against those who " sit between two stools." 

§ 176. The best known pair of these shifting sup- 
porters, employed in modern times, is the two societies of 
the Jesuits and Port Royalists ; the former verging, on 
the one hand, towards the position of Luther, the other 
vibrating towards the opposite extreme of Calvinism. 
Now all the world knows that these celebrated bodies 
stood not only widely apart, but were violently at variance. 
But all the world does not know (or at least no one has 
hitherto said so) that they were really not more at variance 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. -1:03 

with each other than with themselves. In other words, the 
Jesuits, while heretical in practice, were orthodox in 
theory ; and the Jansenists were exactly the reverse. 
Here, if proved, are assuredly the most cunning and com- 
plicate elements, and thus the most conclusive evidence, of 
a catastrophe. But besides being objects the most conspi- 
cuous to give the bearings-of this event, I also select those 
two societies for collateral conveniences : there is an out- 
standing promise to speak more specially of the Jesuits ; 
the Jansenists form one of the two divisions above alluded 
to, as still remaining to be defined upon our general chart 
of Christianity ; and in fine, both Jansenists and Jesuits 
continue yet to be the theme of much more general curi- 
osity and erudite error than perhaps any other sects of the 
system. 

That the doctrines of the Jesuists were in tendency 
heretical — that is to say, proceeded upon the analytic basis 
of free-will and its natural power of giving moral merit to 
human action — has been abundantly shown already, in their 
demonstrated affinity, at once of place and principle, to the 
main tenets of Luther. For what, in fact, is the natural power 
of directing the ** attention," which the latter makes a con- 
dition of salvation, but an extreme relaxation of the veritable 
Jesuit maxim concerning the " direction of the intention 1" 
Both alike are acts of will ; only " attention" lets down 
the effort to the competence of the multitude. The same 
principle and proportion ara exhibited no less signally in 
the other cardinal tenet of Protestants, I mean the doc- 
trine of " private judgment;" which is plainly but the 
popularization of these " probable opinions," so compla- 
cently ridiculed in the Jesuit aristocracy of " doctors." 
On this point, there is another analogy which will shed a 
light much broader in the method and the issue of Jesuit- 
ism. It is well known that the like system of graduated 
Probability prevailed at the corresponding epoch of the 
Mythological Cycle, and in the transitive form of the Theo- 
logic school of Plato, which was denominated accordingly 
the Middle Academy, and which consisted of a species of 
skeptics, analytically intermediate the elder Atomists and 
the later Epicureans. 

§ 177. I3ut while the Society was thus heretical in 
principle and tendency, it w^as in theory pre-eminently 



404 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

orthodox. I have, perhaps, before remarked, that with 
the religions of Heathenism, a Future state of reward and 
punishment, as it begins to be imagined late, so always re- 
mains a mere appendix, or political sanction to the present 
life. With Christianity, the synthetic sequel of the pro- 
gression, it was the converse in this as in all things, and 
the present life was but the preface, the passage, a pilgrim- 
age, a probation stage to the world of the future. This spi- 
ritual life was deemed the paramount or rather sole end 
of the temporal. Consequently, the supreme criterion of 
human conduct and concerns — all morality as well as reli- 
gion being but the putative means to attaining the great- 
est good of mankind. Now, it was the consistent and 
quite Christian application of this axiom that led the 
Jesuits to their peculiar system of ethics; and authorized 
them in concluding, even if they did not do so expressly, 
that pious fraud, mendacity, theft, and even homicide, were 
not only pardonable but obligatory as a means to this one 
thing needful. 

And the conclusion was irresistible. The principle, 
too, was especially plain, where, as here, the good pro- 
posed was deemed both absolute and exclusive. The 
facts alone of the application were open to question. That 
is to say, it might be questioned that happiness in a future 
life was indeed the proper end of existence in this ; and if 
so, whether, at all events, the practices alluded to were 
efficacious means to that end* These were the true objec- 
tions to the decried " morals of the Jesuits." But they 
were not convenient, even if conceivable, to the age or the 
assailants. For the latter held, themselves, to the paramount 
nature of the end ; and, in fact, must otherwise renounce 
the Christian revelation. And, then, the efficacy of the 
means was not easily disproved. To say nothing of lying 
and fraud, of which the pious value was too manifest, and 
which appeared to be prescribed expressly in the Scripture 
model of the wily serpent (as it is an express precept of 
the religion of Brahma, and, in fact, the real principle (§ 43) 
of all others), how should the point be much more dubious 
in the other cases. 

Respecting theft ; suppose for histance the robbery of a 
miser's hoard for the purpose of erecting a church to the 
worship of Jehovah, or outfitting a *' mission for the con- 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 405 

version of the heathen;" was this not clearly a valid 
means of saving souls that might else be lost, and amongst 
them perhaps the soul of the pkmdered wretch himself, 
who might thus be won from Mammon to God 1 And, 
again, in the matter of homicide, only imagine some Jaque 
Clements to have cut the throat of Voltaire, on his boyish 
imprisonment in the Bastile ; what sincere Christian was 
there of that day, or is there even of this, who could deny 
that the pious deed had been conducive to the salvation 
both of this arch reprobate himself and of the myriad 
victims of his writings? Moreover, though such a course 
had not been necessary to prevention, as it is proved to 
have been, in this case, by the event ; though there had 
been other means more moderate, while equally effectual, 
still the murder could at worst be but an error of judg- 
ment, a weW-intended blunder, not a sin or a crime. And 
so through the entire scale of human actions having eter- 
nity for their end. It was not safe, therefore, to meet the 
Jesuits on the real merits of their application. It was, 
accordingly, this Christian consent with their assumed 
premises, joined to the common sense abhorrence of the 
consequences, that drove men, in a dilemma, to charge the 
latter upon the means. And it was proclaimed that the 
*' end does ?20^ justify the means.*' 

§ 178. But it has never been, nor can it be, proved. 
So true, indeed, is the contrary that, if an end in reality 
good, might be said in any sense not to justify the requisite 
means, it would be rather because such means cannot 
stand in need of excuse — being, in the order of nature or 
providence, an integral part of the end. To assume the 
means to be good or evil except in reference to the end, 
w^as to shift both the logical question and the moral crite- 
rion. But this is what was done by the blind denouncers 
of the Jesuits ; who did not see that they were themselves 
appealing to the profane test of morals, the good of man- 
kind in this life, and so betraying the old theological object 
of future happiness. So that, as I have stated, they were 
heterodox in theory or rather spirit, as the casuists were, 
on the other hand, in practice. But that both should have 
been so unconsciously, is only the promised sequel of what 
was designated as the policy of nature : for had they not 
blindness, that necessary quality of all tools, they would, 
35 



406 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

doubtless, have revolted with horror from their destined 
tasks, and might thus defeat the ends of human progress. 
Still it may be necessary to make this complicate and 
common error of nations and generations somewhat clearer. 
And for this purpose it will be best to let the reader hear 
a Jesuit discuss the matter briefly with a Jansenist adver- 
sary. 

— You, Gentlemen of Port-Royal, profess to agree with 
our Society in each and all of the following propositions: 
That the Christian religion is the sole and a sufficient au- 
thority on human duty; that the ruling end which it pro- 
poses refers exclusively to a future state; that the means 
too are of course revealed, more or less explicitly, in the 
Holy Scriptures; that in case of doubt th'3 declaration or 
tradition of the Church supplies an equally infallible guide; 
and finally, that, in absence of the decision of this guide 
upon the multitude of new relations and corruptions of 
these evil times, the selection of the saving means must, 
by peremptory implication, be confided to the executive 
ministry themselves, on pain of forfeiting the very end of 
the whole dispensation. You also admit effectually the 
growing frequency of this last contingency ; for it is the 
progress of iniquity, in what you style ascetically the 
world, that drives, it seems, your own Society into retire- 
ment. Nor can you prove that ours, who stay to stem 
or steer the torrent, are not, in fact, sustained, in the ex- 
ecution of this high discretion, (if not also by explicit 
examples in the Bible itself,) at least by the great 
Christian criterion alluded to — the nothingness of this 
life save as subservient to the next. And as if to con- 
summate our warrant, you consider, nay you complain, 
that our maxims and practices enjoy the sanction of that 
Church which you dare not deny yourselves to be infalli- 
ble ! What is it then, in the double name of Christianity 
and consistency, that you quarrel with in the morals of the 
Jesuits ? Are we not right in thus observing the clear 
deductions of revealed ethics, because they contravene 
occasionally the dubious rules of a corrupt world 1" 

— No, replies the Jansenist ; " the end is good undoubt- 
edly ; but we must not do evil for the sake, or even the 
certainty, of good." 

— Granted, rejoins the Jesuit; we are there too agreed. 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 407 

But SO renowned writers upon logic and grammar as 
you should not commence by begging the question and 
miscalling the terms. You assume that a proper, a neces- 
sary means to a paramount, an absolute good, may be an 
evil. But to us the supposition is self-contradictory. For 
what less is it to hold, that an action truly evil can be the 
means to a real good, according to the same moral criterion 1 
Or that, on the other hand, an end can be properly called 
good, without its adequate and available means ? In truth 
both these things are counterparts of one and the same 
system. The difference is, however, that the end, being 
the substantive or prerogative element, determines with a 
proportionate absoluteness, the quality of the requisite 
means ; while the latter and adjective element gives reality 
to the former. Now the " maxims" of the Jesuits are but 
a supplementary application of this plain axiom, to the 
ethical system of Christianity — of which the future is, you 
know, the supreme End, and the present life the proper 
Means. Such then is our divine warrant for allowing, in 
particular cases, the taking of men's lives, or their wives, 
or even their purses ; as for example to prevent a heresy, 
to peoi^le a nunnery, to promote a charity. You, there- 
fore, in pronouncing these actions to be an evil, while ap- 
proving of the objects which they alone might effect as 
good ; you are, I repeat, both inconsirstent and unchristian. 
For your objection appeals to a different standard of mo- 
rals, and one in direct derogation of the divine. 

" But what is still more aggravating is, that this standard 
should be borrowed from the corrupt world which you 
affect to fly from so fastidiously. Nor is it merely the 
blind sentiments of our perverted humanity that you thus 
oppose to the maxims of the Jesuits ; it is even the pagan 
principles of our civil jurisprudence. You are known, 
Gentlemen, to have a peculiar predilection for the ancient 
classics, and like your favorite Augustine, to be also dab- 
blers in philosophy. May it not be that you are more fa- 
miliar with the Offices of Cicero than with the oracles of 
St. Paul ; with the Summum bonum of Chrysippus than the 
One-thing-needful of Christ? And it is from this pile of 
inconsistency, profanity and heresy that you dare to de- 
nounce as immoral the society of Jesus ; and because this 
body will not, like yours, resign the reprobate to perdition 



408 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

and thus betray the trust of its divine master ; but, keeping 
its eye inflexibly upon the great end of the future, will 
treat the actions and the interests of this petty and passing 
life, as right or wrong, as good or evil, by the sole crite- 
rion of their conduciveness to the welfare of the Church 
of God and the salvation of the soul of man ?" 

§ 179. And in truth the Jesuit is quite correct; ex- 
cept, of course, in the motives imputed. The cant phrase 
that " the end does not justify the means'^ discovers aptly 
that state of transition, when men's minds are sufficiently 
advanced to be shocked at certain consequences of an ef- 
fete hypothesis, without being yet prepared to surrender 
the theory in terms. Such was the situation of the noble 
intellects of Port-Royal, who only yielded, however uncon- 
sciously, to the spirit of human progress that was fast 
transferring the pole of ethics from the theological to the 
temporal world. So that they were, in fact, empirically 
but humanely heretical ; as the Jesuits were not more con- 
sistent, in being atrociously orthodox. 

Now this curious contrast of self-contradiction (so to 
speak) is precisely what enabled the Church to steer her 
course between the two parties in their memorable con- 
troversy. For her policy was to hold to both by their least 
obnoxious extremities, without indentifying herself with 
the internal incoherencies of either. Accordingly, to main- 
tain her habitual " ambiguous middle," we find her lean to 
the Port-Royalists on the doctrine of means, while adher- 
ing to the Jesuits by the deeper affinity oi end. Nor was 
this policy but the simple instinct of self-preservation, I 
repeat it. And I do so for the purpose of adding (as I 
seize all occasions of doing) a new apology for the crimes 
of individuals or institutions. It is, that the darkest which 
have been ever perpetrated by the Catholic Church or any 
class of her agents have been amply warranted by the or- 
thodoxy above denominated atrocious. The theory there 
alluded to is literally the right divine, not merely for the 
Jesuit morals, but for all plunder and persecution. It is 
in fact the sentiment of such a right that gives their peculiar 
relentlessness to all religious rulers and persecutors. It 
rankles still, in a state of impotence, in the rancorous ma- 
lice of the Christian monk. In the flush of power, it lights 
with rapture the ruddy faces of the Mexican sacrificer, and 



METAPHYSICAL CVCLE. 409 

his surpliced brethren who hold the victim upon the altar, 
while he tears out the throbbing vitals of his groaning fellow- 
creatures. Or turn to the Catholic tortures of the Holy In- 
quisition — more excruciatingly refined as being apphed to 
freemen, not to slaves, and offerred to a god of will, not a 
god of passion — and observe the exultant air of the execu- 
tioners. It is that theologians (and more especially those of 
the synthetic Cycle and celibitic life) have the misfortune 
of being taught that heart for humanity is incompatible 
with holiness to God. No ! cruelty in the secular tyrant 
must resort to rage to keep down remorse. In the public 
hangman it finds a refuge in the torpor of habit. In the 
priest alone does it wear insatiably that monstrous self- 
complacency which supplies perhaps the sublimest possible 
conception of the diabolical. 

§ 180. As to the Jansenists — whom we just saw fall- 
ing towards the humanity of the philosopher — the Jesuit 
adversary has left us little to expose in their inconsistency. 
Representing, it has been shown, the dogmatic phase of 
the Christian system, the position of the Port-Royalists was 
the same, under the New Testament, which caused (as 
Neander has well observed) the Sadducees to be accounted 
heretics, in the like decline of the Old Law. These Jew- 
ish dogmatists, to the last, would tolerate no interpretation, 
to keep pace with the progress of the public mind. The 
Pentateuch to the letter and Moses as their prophet were 
the only and peremptory rule of life ; just as the Scriptures 
and Augustine were the watchword of the Jansenists. 
What was the necessary consequence 1 Why, that Moses 
and the Pentateuch having made no mention of a future 
state — a notion reserved, in its moral import, for a later 
mental development (§ 142) — this doctrine, when it duly 
dawned towards the advent of the Christian era, was re- 
fused by the Sadducees, who denounced it as an innovation 
of the Pharisees, the Jewish Jesuits. And this they did 
by dint of orthodoxy ; although the result, we see, was her- 
esy. The parallelism of the modern instance is evident 
and exact, and has been reflected through a series of inter- 
mediate stages. For the same rule which led the Saddu- 
cees to deny the existence of a spiritual state, obliged Au- 
gustine, at the Christian meridian, to deny happiness in 
that state, whether to all men upon any practicable condi- 
35* 



410 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

tion whatever, or to anxj save through a miraculous inter- 
position of divine Grace. Obliged Calvin, in the dogma- 
tic decline of the system, and when the miracles of grace 
were discerned to become rarer, to draw more strictly the 
dread distinction of the Predestined and the Elect. Obliged 
in fine, the Port-Royalists, after a century's additional ex- 
perience of the progressive disproportion of the candidates 
for each condition — in other words, between the *' ortho- 
dox" means of salvation and the intractable " corruption" 
of man — to abandon, in holy horror, the social state itself, 
denouncing not merely its vicious pleasures but even its 
intellectual pursuits. Obliged Pascal, the greatest of them, 
to extend this reprobatory consequence of primitive Scrip- 
ture doctrine audits malevolent deity to his own body; 
and thus, in virtue (who should imagine it ?) of his logical 
pre-eminence, to sink into the macerations of a monk or a 
maniac ! Such are the natural incidents, and necessa- 
ry inconsistency of acting, in riper ages, upon systems of 
any sort, having their origin in the ruder stages of the hu- 
man mind. 

§ 181. Quite opposite here, too, was the procedure of 
the Jesuits. These, instead of impracticably seeking to 
pin mankind, for all time, to the sleeve of Moses or even 
of Augustine, did what they thought the holy Father and 
the Hebrew prophet would themselves have done, had 
they to deal with the thinking transgressors of our day. 
Instead of renouncing society, they mingled with, in order 
to know, it. Instead of denouncing its pursuits, they 
affected to follow, in order to lead, them. For this they 
became scholars and courtiers and even statesmen ; not 
monks, or fanatics, or frivolous declaimers to female audi- 
ences, or lazy incumbents of lordly sinecures. Instead 
of counselling men to stand, like the heathen votary of 
Hercules, imploring the grace of God whether " effica- 
cious" or " praevenient," they taught that each believer had 
received, through the general atonement, a grace "suffi- 
cient" to work out his own salvation. Instead, in short, 
of dogmatizing from a text promulged in the savage in- 
fancy, and revamped in the slavish decline, of a long de- 
parted civilization, they applied themselves to interpreting 
the will of man, as well as the word of the Bible, and in 
this way opening the rock-pent fountain of his real regene- 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 41 1 

ration. In this, no doubt, the Jesuits sapped the system 
of Christianity, by reducing its essential principle to pal- 
pable practice. But the Jansenists were contributing no 
less to the same result by the opposite effort to retrovert 
the moral practice of the present day to the narrow letter 
of its primitive constitution. 

However, the more liberal tribunal of the theory I ex- 
pound has already discharged them both without even a trial, 
as being but instruments of Nature in working out her own 
great end, and by means of that demonstration which she 
habitually employs, as alone . intelligible to the coarse col- 
lective intellect of nations, I allude to the reductio ad ah- 
surdiim. And thus again, I may be allowed to add, does 
the application too exemplify, what a chaos of calumny upon 
God and man is most that passes still for history ; and, in- 
stead of echoing the jumbled ignorance and animosity of 
sectarianism, lead us, particularly, to be grateful, in teach- 
ing us to be just, to the Jesuits. Nor is it only in the work 
of destruction that they have served the cause of Progress. 
Their folios of " cases" afford a rich repository of rare 
materials to the Inductive moralist; who shall come the 
last, nor the least, of the prophets to construct a scientific 
system. 

A system not in hostility with the Christian spirit, 
assuredly. But a new conception of that spirit, bom 
partly of its own workings, and come in turn to fulfil it 
and not to destroy ; even as was its own supplemental mis- 
sion in relation to the elder Covenant. A law which 
shall inculcate the pure worship of the Creator, not the 
superstitions paid to Nature and to Man himself; and which 
shall appeal, not to the slavish or selfish sanctions of fear 
and hope, but to the mutually becoming sentiment of Grati- 
tude. A doctrine which shall teach that harmony between 
the Means and End of life, for which the species have 
groped, progressively, through imaginary discords between 
darkness and light, between winter and summer, between 
destiny and man, between suffering and providence, be- 
ivveen the human and the divine will, between sin, in fine, 
and grace, or to sum up all in the generic formula, between 
evil and good, pleasure and pain ; and which shall vindi- 
cate the ways of God from the blame of this long illusion 
by proving it a necessary process of education — by show- 



412 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATIION. 

ing that the star of providence beamed benignly from the 
beginning, and suffered cloud or cooling but relatively to 
man's position, the opacity of his ignorance and eccentri- 
city of his conception. A Religion which shall enjoin 
happiness, not misery or maceration, here to be the surest 
path to hope or to happiness hereafter. An Education 
which shall lead mankind to seek that happiness or salva- 
tion, not for their miserable selves or sect or country alone, 
but rather for the entire brotherhood of humanity collec- 
tively, and this as a condition of obtaining it at all ; and 
which shall fashion them to expect it, not through special 
interpositions (which would whimsically turn into correla- 
tive states of chaos at once the order of the creator and 
the understanding of the creature), but from the know- 
ledge and observance of the laws eternal, equal, evident, 
to which the former has systematically subjected all his 
works, the heart and will of man, of course, inclusive. 

§ 182. I would doubtless be here reminded that the 
theory is still indebted for a third and tardier form of 
Christian speculation ; that soon after the analytic advent 
of interpretation and free-will should have effected a serious 
rupture in the rocky basis of the Church, synthesis would be 
found at work in re-constructing the ruins upon the less 
frangible foundation of reason. The fact of this opera- 
tion and the corresponding sect, I am very certainly obliged 
to produce. And yet there remains undisposed of, as above 
observed, but a single sample. This, however, meets ex- 
actly the conditions of the prediction, in point of method, 
of principle, and even time. I may add, the farther coin- 
dence, that it offers the primitive stage of the great system 
I have just been indicating as the Religion of the Future. 

The sect in question bears the name of its founder, So- 
cinus. The synthetic form is more evident in the writings 
of the nephev/ — in their character of comprehensiveness 
and conciliation ; it is also recognized by the adversaries of 
the doctrine in their opprobrious appellation of Latitudi 
narianism ; it appears in even the genial and philosophical 
temper of the author, one of the gentlest of theologi- 
cal reformers. The epoch of his appearance was duly 
after the Reformation. And the principle of his system 
is attested quite significantly by the common pretension of 
placing, as the phrase is, "the Socinian," not only outside 



BIETAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 413 

the city walls of Catholic orthodoxy, but even beyond the 
** liberties" of Protestant heresy. That this principle in fact 
was REASON may be verified directly by reference to the 
two cardinal points of the system. 

Of these the less essential, though it has proved the 
more obnoxious, is the denial of the incarnation of the 
Godhead in Jesus Christ. In fact this position, with shght 
difference, had been taken by more than one of the anti- 
trinitarian heresies of the early Church. For this cause, 
however, of greater simplicity and obviousness, it was 
better calculated to give alarm, and consequently to gain 
adherents, in the age or in the audience of Socinus than 
the more fatal, but also more abstract or less appreciable 
innovation. Accordingly throughout this audience — which 
was confined to more northern Europe — the metaphysical 
attack upon the trinity was made the standard of the sect,, 
and has given it the English denomination of Unitarian. I 
do not mean that this simpler side of Socinianism was over- 
rated, if taken, as was doubtless the case, in its merely 
Christian consequences ; for it has been rightly considered 
as striking at the very root of the Christian system. (1) 
But the other tenet goes still farther, and strikes at all re- 
vealed religion, by submitting it to rational arbitration. 

This second and more forward feature of the synthetic 
order of heresies consists in their well-known maxim : — 
That the interpretation of the Scriptures, whether Chris- 
tian or Hebrew, was controllable in even the article of 
mysteries and miracles, by the ultimate decision of Reason. 
The plain tendency of this was in the first place to subor- 
dinate, and fi-nally to supersede the authority of faith. 
Such a principle — of which in fact Socinus was himself but 
imperfectly conscious — had quite naturally, for a long 
time made no sect : indeed the worship of reason never 
makes any, for it, and it alone, is truly catholic. In order, 
therefore, to keep the movement on foot among the ruder 
nations, it must be presented in its most tangible and theo- 

(1) The epitaph upon his tomb presents a rather curious cominen- 
tarj", not only on the part ascribed to himself in the text, but also the 
relative places assigned the chiefs of the Refoi'ination : 

Tola licet Babylon destruxit tecta Lutherus, 
Muros Calvinus, sed fundamenta Socinus. 



414 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

logical aspect ; it is the policy that gave their doctrine and 
origin to the Unitarians. Yet even this, the most palpable 
and pious part of Socinianism, remains to this day, in the 
two countries where almost alone it now exists, among 
the least numerous of the religious denominations ; and 
though dependent for its votaries an the relatively culti- 
vated, is, notwithstanding, scarce acquainted, it would seem, 
in the middle of the nineteenth century, with the great 
epochal idea of their founder in the sixteenth. We may 
hence conceive why this idea should have only recently 
embodied a school, and this in merely the most synthetic 
of the Protestant and Teutonic nations. I refer, of course, 
to the Rationalists of Germany. 

In conclusion, its existence here was owing to the same 
national trait of character which made that country the 
first theatre of the Reformation. The honest German is 
apt to make a mare's nest of what is left elsewhere to ex- 
pire in peace. Indulgences and monks and even the 
Church herself were seen through and ridiculed for a 
century before Luther, by the polished skeptics of the 
Celtic and more civilized South. But these philosophers 
would have never thought of bringing such grievances 
before the multitude. It is only in Germany that a meta- 
physical quibble may be fought about in the streets. It 
was this respectable, if awkward probity — incidental to 
mental boyhood — that gave vehemence to the protest of 
the coarse but candid monk, and thus co-operated, as we 
have seen, with the casuists in advancing the cause of Pro- 
gi'ess. The same solemn puerility pursues the Rationalists 
themselves ; who will as laboriously dispute upon the num- 
ber of steps in Jacob's ladder, or the architectural dimen- 
sions of the three-days' domicil of Jonas as if the question 
concerned the unity of races or the theory of society. Yet 
the defect in this case, too, by dissembling imaginary 
perils, only facilitates the passage of the more backward 
Protestant sects, out of the mselstrom of their actual an- 
archy, to the side of the right synthesis. 

§ 183. I say the right synthesis, for there is unfortunately 
a sinister ; I mean, of course, the yawning receptacle of the 
Church. The vital want of the human intellect consists in 
unity, order, constitution. If this be not furnished by 
science (as it could not have been hitherto),,, it is inevitably 



METAPHYSICAL CYCLE. 415 

sought in superstition. In the thin air of negation, of in- 
termediate oscillation, there is, there can be no durable life. 
But this is the present condition of most of the Protestant 
sects. And the case is particularly aggravated in England 
and America, where the metaphysical elment of progress 
remains far less controlled than elsewhere, not only by the 
penalties of law, but also by the principles of logic. Here 
I fear the state of mental minuteness and debility is less 
likely to rise to Rationalism than to relapse into Romanism : 
more especially when we consider, with Martinus Scrible- 
rus, that the human mind, has Hke the body, an alacrity for 
sinking. 

There was, however, a principle of repulsion in the 
common horror of the name, which might be expected to 
keep those sects in their transitive suspension until the 
spirit of the age should rectify them into progressive 
affinity with the Socinian symbol of reason. But the hope 
of rescue is much abated by the recent rise of a counter 
system, destined to serve for an analogous transition to 
Rome. Such is the philosophical significance of Puseyism ; 
which, accordingly, had its origin in, and limits its exten- 
sion to, thg two countries assigned as the area of the exi- 
gence. In fact, this sly sect is a species of Protestant 
limbo, into which the several denominations are quite liable 
to be drawn successively, according to their diminishing 
divergence from Episcopacy ; and where the heretics are 
to undergo a j)reparatory purification, before passing under 
the old tyrant theology of the middle ages, and being re- 
penned, for their eternal felicity and temporal fleecing, in 
the pitiless fold of the Church. 

If exhortation were my present province, instead of 
explication, there would be much to say to American rea- 
ders on this subject. But if the simple image of the 
situation does not impress them beyond all eloquence, 
assuredly any I could use would prove of small avail. 
Besides I find I have allowed this chapter to exhaust my 
utmost limits. The theme, however, not only itself, but 
even the dullest prejudices that becloud it, were too res- 
pectable to be dispatched without more than ordinary em- 
phasis. They have both, I trust, been treated with decent 
tenderness to honest error ; and yet, it seems, with the 
usual triumph to the theory. Not one, it has been seen of 



416 VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION. 

the doctrines or sects of the Christian system which is not 
deducible a priori from the appUcation of our princij^les. 
And whether, in my discretion of selecting examples, 
where all could not be specified, I have once shrunk from 
the knottiest problems and most complicated tests, I confi- 
dently leave the learned in the subject to say. I do not in 
fact remember any marked excl-usions whatsoever, unless it 
should be among the forms of mysticism. But of this class 
(beside holding generically to the metaphysical or analytic 
line) the only character is, like all madness, to have no 
character at all, and be considerable, but in quality of sign. 

NOTE TO THE READER. 

I must kere abandon the effort of compression. After stripping the 
matter for some hundred pages back to the bare essentials of the ex- 
position, there still remains, of the second Cycle, the heads of Arts 
and Institutions. And the space they occupy in the present period 
may be conceived of from the preceding. But they are also of an im- 
portance which I deem it of stiil more serious consequence not to die- 
figure than the appearance of the book. In the survey of arts is ex- 
plained the revival of the whole aesthetic scale from the seeming torpor 
of mediasval night, in their metaphysical transformation. That of Insti- 
tutions embraces, among other things, a rationale of the Feudal system in 
its rise, its reign as the preassigned and Monarchical type of the Cycle, 
and its dissolution, now in progress, into the third or Republican form ; 
a confirmation of the theory which farther unfolds spontaneously the 
actual condition and approaching destination both of European and 
American politics and society. Upon these themes it is not either 
commonplaces or crudities that are wanted — two extremes from which, 
I trust, I have hitherto kept equally aloof. But nothing better could be 
made intelligible within less than half again the size of the volume. 

Nor can the omission be regarded any breach of engagement with 
the reader. The undertaking, it will be remembered, was not the 
explanation of history 5 it was the establishment of a theory, by means 
of history as far as necessary. But the end I submit was fully 
answered by the survey of even the first Cycle 5 which is, moreover, 
a type or function of the two following. 

But there is a matter of which I regret the extrusion still more. 
I designed to close the work with some precautionary rules, to be ob- 
served in applying the theory to states of social perturbation. These I 
attempted to explain in some of the chief anomalies of history, such as 
the monotheism of the Jews, the peculiarities of the Chinese language, 
and the precedence of our own Union in the second stage of Republi- 
canism. To which was added a fourth case, not unlikely at the pres- 
ent to become a future and a fatal example ; I mean the destiny of 
"Romanism" in this country. But these may all be soon supplied, 
should the public deem the writer to have any thing of value to com- 
municate. 



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